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THE 

PREDICTIONS OF THE PROPHETS, 

which 
HAVE BEEN MOST WONDERFULLY FULFILLED 

SINCE 

THE COMMENCEMENT OE THE CHRISTIAN ERA, 

AND 
ESPECIALLY THOSE PREDICTIONS CONCERNING 

THE UNITED STATES OE AMERICA. 

By Rev. P. E. ROYSE, 

AUTHOR OF " THE VOICE OF THE PROPHETS." 



" They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them." — Abraham. 

" Despise not prophecyings ; prove all things ; hold fast that which ia 
good." — St. Paul. 

" Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this Book."— 
Christ. 



CINCINNATI: 

PUBLISHED EOR THE AUTHOR. 

1864. 



* 



v 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, 

By Rev. P. E. ROYSE, 

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Southern District of Ohio. 



^ V x r sl 



2 



5 



HJ ebication 



TO THE PRESIDENT AND CABINET, 
TO THE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, 

TO THE ARMY AND THE NAVY, 

TO ALL THE GOVERNORS, 
TO ALL THE LEGISLATORS, 

TO ALL THE OFFICERS OF STATE, 
TO EVERY LOYAL MAN AND WOMAN 

IN 

S&\) c Ettiteb States of America, 

THIS BOOK IS CHEERFULLY DEDICATED. 

THE AUTHOR. 



t 



PREFACE. 



Are you desirous to know, kind reader, what you may ex- 
pect from this book, that you have not met with, and will not 
meet with, in other works on Prophecy ? 

I. It will be shown that the fourth Beast or government 
foretold by Daniel was the Pagan Roman Umpire, and that 
the Beast seen by St. John the Divine, arise out of the sea, 
was the Papal Roman Government ; and although they both 
had seven heads and ten horns, they were two distinct Beasts 
or governments, and each held its supremacy over the na- 
tions 1260 years, the period foretold by the Prophets. 

II. That the seven ages of the Church, or Christian Dispen- 
sation, are foretold under the beautiful allegory of the Seven 
Churches in Asia, and that each age was or will be 420 years. 

III. That there were to be but four notable Beasts or gov- 
ernments, in which all others would be included, after the 
giving of this Revelation; and that they did gain the 
supremacy over each other at the predicted time. 

IV. That the United States of America is the fourth 
Beast, or Flying Eagle, seen in the Vision by St. John on the 
Isle of Patmos; the United States of America is also repre- 
sented under the allegory of the two-horned Beast which 
St. John saw coming up out of the earth ; then the Image to 
the Beast, the " Southern Confederacy," is foretold, and its 
destiny — the wars in this country, as well as the wars of other 
nations are foretold — the war we are now in — the year it was 
to begin — when the main fighting of the war will be over, and 
when the troubles in which we are involved will finally end. 

V. That gunpowder and firearms are foretold — that the ap- 
plication of steam is foretold, both upon sea and land — and 
also the art of Printing. The application of Electricity is fore- 
told, and one of the most noticeable purposes for which it 
would be used in all the annals of time. 



PREFACE. 

VI. That the Woman, the emblem of the true Church, the 
Bride, goes into the wilderness twice, instead of once, as has 
been heretofore taught by other authors, and therefore they 
have been looking long ago for the end of this dispensation, and 
the second Advent and Millennium ! That the holy city was 
trodden down, and the two witnesses killed, during the wo- 
man's first sojourn in the wilderness. And what is meant by 
the locusts coming up from the Bottomless Pit — the four An- 
gels loosed in the great River Euphrates — the woman clothed 
with the sun — the Angel standing in the sun. That the woman 
was in the wilderness the first time, precisely the number of 
years foretold by the prophet, and so it will be as to her second 
sojourn — 1260 years each time. 

VI T. That the opening of the seven seals did occupy 420 
years — 60 years to each seal. That the sounding of the Seven 
Trumpets then followed in regular Chronological order, and 
required 1260 years — or 180 years to each trumpet. Then 
follows the pouring out of the Seven Vials, occupying 1260 
years more — equal to 180 years for each vial. What I notice 
as being most remarkable, is the fact, that about the 7000th 
year of the world, and the 3000th year of the Christian Era, 
is the grand period of events. That the seventh age of the 
Church will end A. D., 2940. That the woman's second sojourn 
in the wilderness ends A. I)., 2940. That the Seventh Vial 
period ends A. D., 2940.. That the two-horned Beast, or 
United States of America, will have completed its number of 
years by A. D., 2940. Then the 2300 days of the prophet Daniel 
will end in the same year, A. D., 2940. Then cometh the end 
at an unknown hour, the second Advent of the Son of Man in 
the clouds of Heaven; the Cleansing of the Sanctuary from 
all errors in doctrine, corruptions in practice, and unrighteous, 
ness in government ; the first Resurrection, and the long- 
desired Millennium, when Messiah shall reign king alone over 
all the nations of the Earth. The Author. 



INTRODUCTION 



That wonderful Image seen in the Vision of the 
King of Babylon, which so troubled him when asleep, 
and occasioned him so much "solicitude when awake, 
denoted four of the great empires, or kingdoms of 
the world. Daniel, the prophet of Jehovah, was 
chosen from among the wise men of the kingdom of 
Babylon, to interpret the King's Vision. In the in- 
terpretation (see Dan. chap, ii:), we are told the 
wise men, the astrologers, the magicians and the 
soothsayers, could not reveal unto the king his vision 
and the interpretation thereof. But there is a God 
in heaven, said Daniel, that revealeth secrets, and 
maketh known to mankind what shall be in the 
latter days. 

" And in the days of these Kings shall the God 
of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be 
destroyed ; and the kingdom shall not be left to other 
people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all 
these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Foras- 
much as thou sawest that the Stone was cut out of 
the mountain without hands, and that it brake in 
pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and 
the gold ; the great God hath made known to the 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

king what shall come to pass hereafter ; and the 
dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure." 

The different parts of the Image, represented dif- 
ferent empires, according to the interpretation. The 
head of Gold, represented the Babylonian empire. 
The breast and arms of Silver, the Medo-Persian 
empire. The belly and thighs of Brass, the Grecian 
empire, under Alexander the Great. The legs and 
feet of Iron, the Pagan Roman empire. And the 
ten toes of mingled iron and clay, the Papal Roman 
empire, after the "whole system of Pagan Roman 
jurisprudence had been remodeled by Pope Jus- 
tinian, A. D., 540. 

The last feature in the Image, is designed to de- 
note the same thing as the ten horns of the Beast 
of the Apocalypse, seen in the Vision of St. John 
coming up out of the sea. As iron is able to bruise 
and break in pieces all other materials ; so the old 
Roman empire bruised and broke all other kingdoms 
and dictated laws to the world, for a time, times and 
a half time. 

As the Beast with iron teeth, rent to pieces all 
that came in his way, as a lion among the lambs of a 
flock, so the Pagan Roman empire smote the Shep- 
herd of Israel, and scattered and devoured the 
humble followers of the meek and lowly Jesus in the 
early ages of Christianity. 

We have here a prophetic description of the king- 
dom of Christ, as the fifth great empire that should 



INTRODUCTION. V 

arise after the date of this prophecy ; but unlike all 
the others which had arose, flourished, and previously 
passed away, it should stand forever. It is repre- 
sented under the similitude of a Stone cut out of 
the mountain without hands — that is, without the 
wisdom and power of man — but by the Spirit of the 
Lord. Therefore, the first heralds of this kingdom 
were required to tarry at Jerusalem, until they were 
endued with power from on high, by the baptism of 
the Holy Spirit. 

The Prophet was permitted to see the Stone roll 
onward by superhuman power, smiting the feet of 
the Image, and shattering it to atoms, and yet pass- 
ing on without impediment, and finally becoming a 
great mountain or kingdom, and filling the whole 
world. 

In the history of the Church, we have seen the 
counterpart of the emblem, that Christianity had a 
small beginning, and was evidently sustained by an 
unseen power, and that thus the prophecy of Daniel 
has been wonderfully fulfilled. Mankind were as- 
tonished at the supernatural events which transpired, 
when Messiah made his humble advent in the manger 
of Bethlehem. Little did the kings in their rage, 
and people in their vain imaginations, when they set 
themselves against the Lord and against his Anoint- 
ed, expect him to set up a kingdom, that should break 
in pieces all others, and itself alone be eternal.. 
Let us behold him in his humiliation ! He was 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

born of a poor Virgin, and accouched in a manger, 
for want of room among the rich men, in the beauti- 
ful village Bethlehem. He became poor for our 
sake, and led a life of poverty, persecution and sor- 
row, and yet a life of laborious usefulness, from the 
manger to Mount Moriah. He died one of the most 
painful and ignominious of deaths on the Roman 
cross, but arose triumphantly from the dead, on the 
predicted morning of the third day. He then com- 
missioned his Apostles, the former fishermen of Gali- 
lee, to go into all the world, and preach the laws of 
his kingdom to every creature. He then ascended 
on high, and sent down the Holy Spirit, the promised 
Comforter, to give efficiency to the Gospel, to prove 
its divinity, and convince, pardon and save the apos- 
tate children of men. 

The Disciples and Apostles on the day of Pente- 
cost, the day of the first fruits of the Spirit, which 
had been typified for ages by the first fruits of their 
fields, did begin, persevered and prospered in their 
work of faith and labor of love by the power of the 
Holy Spirit. And thus it was the Stone, rolling forth 
from Mount Zion, smote the feet and legs of the 
Image, and is still rolling on, and shall crush and 
break in pieces the Image, and grind it to powder, 
and scatter it to the four winds of heaven. And 
still the little Stone shall roll on and increase until 
it become a great mountain, and fill the whole earth 
forever. 



INTRODUCTION. Vll 

It will be our object, in this little volume, to no- 
tice the certainty of the fulfillment of the predictions 
of the Prophets, the glory of Messiah's kingdom, 
and the probable time when it shall be fully estab- 
lished in the world. 

The certainty of the fulfillment of this prophecy 
is founded on the promise made by the Father to the 
Son : " I, the Lord, have called thee in righteous- 
ness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and 
give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of 
the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring forth 
the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in 
darkness out of the prison-house." 

Here is another promise to the same purpose, that 
Messiah should have universal dominion, as the re- 
ward of his suiferings : " Thus saith the Lord, it is 
a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant, to 
raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the pre- 
served in Israel. I will also give thee for a light of 
the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to 
the ends of the earth." 

Again, another promise to the same purpose is 
contained in the Second Psalm : " Ask of me, and I 
shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and 
the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." 
But he has asked for these ; therefore all nations 
shall come and worship before him, when he shall 
reign king alone over all the earth. 

The second consideration on which we found the 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

certainty of Messiah's universal dominion is, his un- 
doubted qualification to accomplish the work which 
the Father has given him to do. In regard to the 
perfection of his attributes, and his adorable qualifi- 
cations, his own testimony is confirmed by the highest 
authority in the universe. 

No one knoweth the Father in all the perfection 
of his nature, all the wisdom of his counsels, and all 
the immutability of his purposes, but the Son ; and 
no one knoweth the Son but the Father, as they 
alone are of the same essence and exhibit the same 
attributes. The Messiah is God manifest in the 
flesh ; the express image of his person, and the 
brightness of the Father's glory. 

None but a divine personage could give, and none 
but a divine personage could receive, such a privilege 
as above promised. None but God manifest in the 
flesh could be competent to the eternal redemption 
and salvation of countless millions of the human 
race. But the many titles of the Messiah, which 
are contained in the Scriptures of Truth, evince his 
qualifications for the subjugation of all things to 
himself, and the final salvation of the world. He is 
not only able to overthrow whatsoever is wrong, and 
set up his glorious kingdom, but to establish and 
maintain it forever, for it shall never be destroyed ; 
but it shall break in pieces and destroy all other 
kingdoms : and thus the kingdoms of this world 
shall become the kingdom of Messiah. 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

In the predictions of the prophets, your attention 
is invited to the universal glory of Messiah's king- 
dom, which includes the victory obtained over all 
other kingdoms, the blessings bestowed, and their 
everlasting duration. The prophet saw the stone 
cut out of the mountain, without hands, rolling 
down the mountain side, instinct with the power of 8 
God, rushing and bounding toward the great image, 
smiting and breaking its feet of iron and clay ; and 
the stone, increasing in size and velocity, is still seen 
rolling onward, bounding and rebounding, till it 
grinds the fallen image to powder, and scatters it as 
the dust of the summer threshing-floor to the four 
winds of heaven. The prophet beholds it become a 
living stone — disallowed, indeed, of men, but truly 
approved of God, and endued with the power of per- 
petual motion, rolling onward and crushing whatever 
opposes its progress, and growing to such a magni- 
tude that it finally fills the whole earth ; and thus 
the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of 
Messiah. 

This is the salt carried forth by the fishermen of 
Galilee, seasoning the nations to save from utter 
ruin ! the little leaven from Jerusalem, hid in the 
Gospel meal, spreading through the whole world, to 
elevate every human creature ! the living waters 
from the fountains of the eternal Lebanon, to purify 
and give everlasting life to a perishing world ! This 
is the victorious dominion of Messiah, from Jerusa- 



X INTRODUCTION. 

lem to Japan, in the East; from Mount Zion to 
America, in the West. From sea to sea, and from 
pole to pole, the Gospel is being preached to every 
nation, tribe, and family of man, according to the 
great commission, " Go ye into all the world, and 
preach my Gospel to every creature." 

In the predictions of the prophets we are called 
to consider the blessings bestowed by the establish- 
ment of the Redeemer's kingdom. 

Indisputable testimony hath established the fact 
that Christ hath ascended on high, " and received 
gifts for men ; yea, for the rebellious also ;" good and 
perfect gifts for the righteous, and gifts of power for 
the destruction of all impenitent rebels, that God 
may dwell among them that are obedient to the laws 
of his kingdom. All power is given unto him in 
heaven and in earth, and with him are treasured up 
all the stores of wisdom and knowledge, so that he 
can save his friends to the utmost, or destroy his 
enemies suddenly and forever without remedy. 

The Gospel Salvation shall be as the waters of a 
mighty ocean, spreading over the whole earth — not 
as the Deluge to drown, not to be frozen by wintry 
frost, nor evaporated by summer heat; but there 
shall be a fullness of its blessings from land to land, 
from shore to shore, from the rising of the sun to 
the going down of the same. The African, the Aus- 
tralian, the Chinese, and the American Indian, shall 
be as thoroughly instructed in divine things as the 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

Anglo-Saxon ; and the Anglo-Saxon shall then be 
seven times more intelligent than now. And this 
shall not be a mere superficial knowledge, but it will 
be truly experimental and practical. It shall be a 
faith unfeigned, of the operation of God, working by 
love and purifying the heart. The light and influ- 
ence of the Gospel shall then be as the sun shining 
in his strength. In that day there shall be only one 
Lord, and his name one, for he shall be king alone 
over all the earth. 

Among the blessings of the Millennial age — and 
such an age will come in his own times — when Mes- 
siah shall reign the only potentate over all the earth, 
there shall be universal righteousness, peace, joy 
and prosperity in all lands. Nation shall no more 
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any more, for Messiah's kingdom shall not be 
maintained by the arts and power of war. The con- 
tents of the arsenal shall be sent to the foundry, and 
the armory shall be emptied at the blacksmith's 
shop, and the weapons of war shall be turned into 
the peaceful implements of agriculture. 

The climate and seasons shall be more genial, and 
earth, air and water, purified by fire, shall every 
where be more salubrious, and the days of those 
years shall be as the days of heaven upon earth. 
Behold the prophetic emblems of that age of pro- 
found and universal peace ! See the wolf dwelling 
in peace with the lamb ! the leopard lying down 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

quietly with the kid ! the cow and the bear feeding 
friendly together in the same field ! See the infant 
leading the lion by the mane, and playing with the 
asp c«ud the adder, and none of these ferocious or 
dangerous creatures are disposed to hurt or destroy ! 
Behold two virgins, heavenly twins, Holiness and 
Happiness, more beautiful than Sarah and Esther ; 
more united than David and Jonathan ; more insep- 
arable than Ruth and Naomi ; hand in hand, joyfully 
walking on over the world, singing with heavenly 
melody, the song once sung by angels at Bethlehem : 
Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace and 
good-will to men ! 

The crowning glory of Messiah's kingdom, to 
which the prophets would call our attention, is its 
duration. " It shall not be destroyed, nor left to 
other people." However numerous and mighty the 
enemies of this kingdom, they can not overthrow it; 
therefore it shall stand forever. Where now are the 
once illustrious empires of Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, 
Persia, Greece and Pagan Rome ? Where are the 
Pharaohs, the Ptolomies and the Caesars? Where 
are the regal descendants of the once proud houses 
of York and Lancaster, of Bourbon and Hapsburg ? 
These have all been disrobed of their glory, and 
their kingdoms have been destroyed. But the King 
of Zion, the Prince of the Kings of the Earth, liveth 
through all time, and is himself the Father of Eter- 
nity, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

ending, the first and the last. His kingdom is an 
everlasting kingdom, and of his dominion there shall 
be no end ! 

When shall these things be ? This question was 
asked ages ago, and only indirectly answered. We 
shall attempt, in this small volume, to show by the 
testimony of two witnesses, at least, that of Daniel 
and John of Patmos — that all the great vicissitudes 
and changes in kingdoms and empires, Church and 
State, have been set forth in the predictions of the 
Prophets, under mystical and allegorical emblems, 
which we shall endeavor to explain and apply, to show 
the reader that we are not left in utter uncertainty 
about the time of the end of the present dispensa- 
tion and the commencement of the Millennium or 
Kingdom of Righteousness. The language of the 
inspired writers, viewed in connection with the signs 
of the times, has led many in past ages, as well as at 
the present time, to the conclusion that it is nigh at 
hand, even at the door. Our blessed Lord Jesus 
Christ said, while personally present with his dis- 
ciples on earth, that " of that day and hour knoweth 
no man," but he did not say he never would reveal 
it ; but on the contrary, he said, " I have many 
things to say to you, but I will speak with you here- 
after," and this he did in that notable Book, " The 
Revelation of Jesus Christ" in which the Church is 
represented under the allegory of the seven churches 
in Asia, and the whole period of time from his first 



XIV INTRODUCTION. 

to his second Advent is divided into twenty-one 
periods; seven seal periods, seven trumpet periods, 
and seven vial periods. Many learned divines have 
been, and still are, of the opinion, that Popery and 
Mohammedanism, the Antechrists of the East, and 
the West, must fall about A. L>., 1866, and then the 
Millennium will begin ! 

However different writers on the Prophecies differ 
in their opinions as to the fulfillment of these pre- 
dictions, all these speculations have proved uncertain, 
though not unprofitable, as they have led to a more 
critical reading of the Holy Scriptures, which are 
able to make us wise unto salvation. 

"What matters it, if our watches do not exactly 
agree, as to the hour of the night ? We all know 
that the night is far spent, the day is at hand, and 
the magnitude and importance of our duty require 
prompt and earnest attention and action. But we 
have a more sure word of prophecy, as to its fullness 
and clearness, than was given to the patriarchs. I 
believe God foreknows all events, and in the Revela- 
tion of Jesus Christ, has foretold all the great revo- 
lutions, and especially the setting up the Millennial 
Kingdom on Earth. 

But where shall we begin our calculations ? The 
seven-headed and ten-horned Beast or government, 
seen by Daniel, coming up out of the sea, the 
fourth great empire after the date of his prophecy, 
was the Pagan Roman empire, and was to hold the 



INTRODUCTION. XV 

supremacy among the governments of Earth, for a 
time, times and a half time, or one thousand two 
hundred and three score days, or 1260 common 
years. If this be a correct interpretation of the 
prophecy of Daniel, history must show that from 
the founding of Rome by Remus and Romulus, that 
the empire did not undergo any material change, and 
maintained the supremacy among the nations, for 
the period predicted by Daniel. But history does 
show that the Pagan Roman empire stretched out its 
scepter of power over the nations for more than a 
thousand years, and reigned mistress of the world, 
from 740 B. C, to 520 A. D. Therefore, as the 
coincidence between prophecy and history is so 
exact, we conclude the fulfillment complete. 

Now, to keep up the predictions of prophecy, with 
the future chain of events, we need a further reve- 
lation than that given to Daniel. This deficiency, 
however, is fully supplied by the prophetic visions 
of St. John upon the Isle of Patmos ; while he stood 
upon the sands of iEgean Sea, he saw a beast rise 
up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns ; 
a beast or government precisely like the one seen by 
Daniel, except that on its heads it had the names j of 
blasphemy, or its heads, its rulers in the government 
assumed blasphemous titles, prerogatives and power. 
This Beast or government seen by St. John, was the 
Papal Roman government, to w T hich Daniel's Beast, 
with seven heads and ten horns, gave his military 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

power and his seat of government, Rome, and his 
great legal authority. If this interpretation be cor- 
rect, history must show that the Papal power did 
assume the supremacy among the nations, and took 
the place of the Pagan Roman government between 
the years A. D., 520 and 540, and held the same for 
a thousand two hundred and three score days, or 
1260 common years. But history does positively 
show, that the whole system of Pagan Roman juris- 
prudence was remodeled by Pope Justinian, aided by 
the most learned jurists of the Roman empire, and 
that this event occurred about the year A. D., 523, 
and from that time the Papal power was supreme 
among the nations, and power was given unto him to 
continue to hold the supremacy forty-two months, 
according to the prediction by St. John, which forty- 
two months are 1260 years, which brings us down the 
course of time to A. D., 1783. Therefore, as the 
coincidence of prophecy and history is exact, we 
hold that the fulfillment is complete. 

St. John saw another Beast or government com- 
ing up out of the Earth, which is the last Beast or 
government foretold by the prophets. Now, as the 
American government has all the characteristic 
qualities of this Beast, and as it is the only govern- 
ment on earth that came into existence in the year 
1783, or the year in which we should expect the two- 
horned Beast to come up out of the earth, therefore, 
we justly conclude that the United States of America 



INTRODUCTION. XV11 

is as certainly foretold, and under the same simili- 
tude, as any of the great governments of time. 
Therefore, we conclude as the two-horned Beast is 
to exercise all the power of the first Beast before 
him, he must have the time to do it in, and hence we 
conclude, that the American government will hold 
the supremacy over all other governments, for more 
than a thousand years yet to come, and that the 
Millennium will not commence within the limits of a 
thousand years ; nor will it be set up until the sec- 
ond Advent, and under the personal dominion of the 
Messiah. " Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom 
which can not be moved, let us have grace whereby 
we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and 
godly fear ; for our God is a consuming fire " to 
everything that may oppose the progress and estab- 
lishment of this kingdom. 

This little volume is but an abridgment of a large 
work by the author, containing about 500 royal oc- 
tavo pages, which has been more than twenty years 
in preparation. The large volume is entitled, " The 
Voice of the Prophets," and may be ordered at any 
time by addressing the author, at Cincinnati, Ohio ; 
and will be sent to order, anywhere, by express, on 
the receipt of three dollars, bound in sheep. Many 
of the predictions of the prophets, which have been 
fulfilled since the commencement of the Christian 
era can only be hinted at in this small volume ; and 
yet they are fully explained in the large work. 



XV111 INTRODUCTION. 

One special object in abridging " The Voice of the 
Prophets/' was to bring the facts and truths con- 
tained therein before our loyal and gallant soldiers, 
in a convenient and portable form, that they may see 
that this government is ordained and appointed of 
God, and that they are doing God service by over- 
throwing its enemies. 

Whether we consider the limits or the latitude of 
the present little volume, for the sake of order, we 
shall only take for our guide, the predictions of one 
of the prophets, that of " St. John the Divine." 
Whatever predictions may be contained in the other 
prophets, must be merely referred to, as the limits 
of the present work, for the object contemplated, 
will not admit of quotations. 

The Revelation of Jesus Christ by St. John, ac- 
cording to the interpretation given in this work, 
presents to the mind of the reader as in a grand 
panorama, all the great characters, actions and events 
of time, from the first to the second Advent of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Whosoever, therefore, shall 
teach, that other great events will occur, which are 
not foretold in this Revelation, is a false prophet ; 
therefore, " if any man shall add unto these things, 
God shall add unto him the plagues that are written 
in this book." On the other hand, if any man 
shall teach that the great events foretold in the 
prophecy of this book, will not be fulfilled, he is a false 
teacher ; and, therefore, " if any man shall take away 



INTRODUCTION. xix 

from the words of the book of this prophecy, God 
shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, 
and out of the Holy City, and from the things which 
are written in this book." We shall be compelled, 
for the sake of brevity to give merely an epitome 
of the Apocalypse, and such predictions of the Pro- 
phets as may appear directly to our present purpose. 
" Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the 
words of this prophecy, and keep those things which 
are written therein." 

The Author. 



PREDICTIONS OF THE PROPHETS, 

AN EPITOME OF THE APOCALYPSE 

OR 

THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRI8T. 



CHAPTER I. 

Of all the predictions of the prophets, which have 
been made know to mankind, none are so important 
as the words of the prophecy of this book. God, at 
sundry times, and in divers manners made known 
his will to man in former ages by the prophets ; but 
in the last times, or gospel dispensation, he has spo- 
unto us by his Son. In the Evangelists, the doctrines 
and duties of Christianity are set forth, as the law 
of the Church of the living God. In the Acts of 
the Apostles, this law is magnified and made honor- 
able as exemplified in the faith and practice of Chris- 
tians for the time of one generation. In the Epistles 
to the Churches, and to individual Christians, the 
doctrines and duties required by the Gospel Statutes, 
are fully eliminated and unfolded, and the whole 
3' 



22 PREDICTIONS 

Christian system completely developed in all its re- 
quirements as to the past and present. However, one 
thing more was wanting, to complete the plan of sal- 
vation, and that deficiency was supplied by this Rev- 
elation, to encourage the hopes, to increase the faith, 
and perfect the love of his people. It is true that 
all Scripture is given by Revelation from God ! But 
in regard to this book, as in all things else, that 
Christ may have the pre-eminence, it it is called " The 
Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, 
to show unto his servants things which must shortly 
come to pass." 

This Book is entitled the Revelation of Jesus 
Christ, which signifies, not merely a Revelation from 
him, but a Revelation of his Divine Character of 
Prophet, Priest, and King. 

In the first part of this book, his character as the 
high Priest of our profession is fully declared as 
having atoned for us by his own blood. Then his 
Prophetic character is fully established, as no other 
being in the universe could open the seven seals of 
the Book of Futurity, and declare the order of events 
for all time to come ! Finally, his regal character is 
delineated in the last part of the Book, with all the 
majesty, grandeur and glory of God. The metropolis 
of his everlasting kingdom is grand beyond human 
conception. Its walls of most precious stones — its 
streets paved with pure gold — its gates of pearl — his 
sentinels at the gates are Angels — its citizens innu- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 23 

merable — their supplies and consolations abundant 
and eternal, from the tree of life and river of life in 
the midst of the paradise of God. 

This Booh consists of Seven Parts and Seven Periods, 
which toe shall notice in their regular Chronological 
order. 

The whole period of Time through which these 
Prophecies extend, comprises at least 4000 years — 
from the Incarnation of Jesus Christ to the end of 
the present Dispensation, and the consummation of 
all things pertaining to his Mediatorial Kingdom, 
and the creation of the New Heavens and New 
Earth. 

This grand period of years is divided into Seven 
Periods. Two of these periods, the 3d and 4th, are 
each 1260 years ; or, the two together are 2520 
years ; and both the 3d and 4th periods are subdi- 
vided into seven shorter periods — each of 180 years; 
which is a half Time. Therefore, in 1260 years there 
are Seven Half Times, or seven times 180 years — 
equal to 1260 years. Or, if we add the time of the 
3d and 4th periods together, we have 2520 years, 
equal to seven whole Times, or seven Periods of 360 
years each, called Times, in prophetic language. 
A Time is a year of years. 

In Geometry, 360 degrees make a complete circle. 
So in Prophecy, 360 years make a complete circle of 
years. Therefore, a year of years, or a prophetic 



24 rj.z: ::z:::"5 

T -: . : - - : 3 ] - " 

5tand for Month, : : years, in pro- 
'■"..-:::: :' : v ' - _— : iizii -.':.y. : .z:" : .- -i ninths e :_*.ial 
5f-T~ It.z Zizir?. :: li:" _ -. 

It is i self-evident proposition, thai every action 
requires #ifH# 7 in which it may be accomplished. 

refore, we jus fly ronclude that it required time 

:'..r 5T~r~ ":::" ". is: :: sitLnitlr St-t^i. 

prophetic trumpets, and pour out the contents of the 
seven prophetic rials. Hence. I hare ascertained 
to n :tion, by the fulfillment of the predic- 

tions pertaining to &€ .-.:"- / : :1? 

time occupied in opening ea 1 > : i. ~:- = ~ i tr s . i . 
therefore the whole period of time for opening the 
- .">:: Srt"_ ; e: tais -i '. years. 
Then the time occupied iz ach trumpet, 

nd therefore the whole period of 
.'...' tets equals 126( 

Again, -'. le lime :::upied by pouring each iria7, 
was, :»r will be, 180 years ; and therefore, the whole 
period of time will be equal to 126 Tears. On this 
principle of interpretation, I have shown the most 
conclusive coincidence between prophecy and history 
lown to our times and country, in regard to the ful- 
fillment of the proptr des, - the reader may learn 
' ~ t erasing :i_is little -jaaiae. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 25 

PART FIRST, PERIOD FIRST— FROM A. D., 1 TO 120. 

These relate to things that were, or to the state 
of the Church in the Apostolic age. 

This Part and Period include two shorter periods, 
which, for the sake of distinction, and also because 
we consider them real, we shall call them Seal Pe- 
riods; it was during this period that the 1st and 2d 
Seals were opened. The opening of the First Seal 
begins with the Advent of Jesus Christ, and occupied 
60 years. The Second Seal occupied 60 years, and 
begins where the first seal ends ; or, with the bloody 
persecutions. 

The opening of the First Seal indicates the time 
of the triumph of Christianity under the symbol of 
the White Horse. The opening of the Second Seal 
indicates the time of the bloody persecutions which 
began under Nero, and is symbolized by the Red 
Horse, the emblem of Wickedness, War, and Blood- 
shed — by destructive and cruel persecutions. 

[To shew unto his servants things which must 
shortly come to pass] — Here the object of this Rev- 
elation is also briefly stated in these words. His 
servants are those who fear God and keep his com- 
mandments ; also called the wise ; the children of wis- 
dom, wise virgins, not merely possessing the wisdom 
of this world, but the wisdom that is from above, 
which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be 
entreated; full of mercy and good fruits; without 



26 PREDICTIONS 

partiality and without dissimulation. Hence the 
servants of God are blessed with the Spirit of heav- 
enly wisdom and purity, and are therefore called by 
Christ wise virgins. Behold the Bridegroom cometh ! 
Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day, nor 
the hour, wherein the Son of man cometh. 

[And he sent, and signified it by his angel] — All 
good angels, as well as good men, are the servants of 
God, ready to do his will : yet there are some angels 
as well as men who are more eminently his. In all 
probability this angel is Gabriel ; an archangel who 
appeared to the prophet Daniel, to unfold the future 
history of the Church and the world : and again he ap- 
peared to Zacharias, in the Temple at Jerusalem, at 
the time that the promise was made to him, of the 
birth of his son John : and again he appeared to the 
Blessed Virgin Mary, about six months after his ap- 
pearance in the Temple, to announce to her the in- 
carnation of Jesus Christ, the most important event 
which ever interested the human race. 

[Unto his servant John] — Who this was, some say 
is not now possible to determine : nor say they is it of 
any vital importance to the Church, or the world, that 
we should know. As well might men doubt who 
wrote the Pentateuch, or the prophesy of Isaiah, or 
the book of Daniel. All tradition and history agree, 
as by common consent, that St. John the Evangelist, 
son of Zebedee, and author of the apostolic epistles 



OF THE PROPHETS. 27 

of The New Testament, which bear his name, is also 
author of this Revelation. 

[V. 2. Who bare record of the word of God, and 
of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all the things 
that he saw] — John recorded in a book, or on parch- 
ment, which was likely providentially provided for 
the purpose of preserving authentic or correct evi- 
dence of the things which he saw Christ perform 
while here in the world, and the doctrines which he 
heard him teach ; and in reference to which John re- 
marks in his Gospel, "This is the discipline which 
testifieth these things, and wrote these things, and 
many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of 
his disciples, which are not written in this book; but 
these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is 
the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye 
might have life through his name." And in the first 
epistle of John, we have this testimony on the same 
subject : " And we know that the Son of God is come, 
and hath given us an understanding, that we may 
know him that is true ; and we are in him that is true, 
even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, 
and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves 
from idols. Amen." 

Now in the Gospel of St. John we are not expressly 
told that he wrote it; but are left to infer from in- 
direct and collateral evidence, if we depend upon the 
book itself, that he is the author. However, the tra- 
dition of the Church, and the united voice of history, 



28 PREDICTIONS 

give St. John the credit of writing the Gospel, aud 
the apostolic epistles which bear his name. But the 
testimony that the apostle and evangelist wrote this 
book is not merely a matter of inference. The proof 
is direct and positive, both from ecclesiastical and pro- 
fane authors, as well as from internal and collateral 
evidence. In the mouth of two or three witnesses 
every controversy may be settled. 

"Justin Martyr, who lived and wrote about forty 
years after John wrote the Revelation, was acquainted 
with this book, and testifies that it was written by the 
apostle John : for in his dialogue with Trypho, he ex- 
pressly says : f A man from among us, by name John, 
one of' the apostles of Christ, in the Revelation made 
to him, has prophesied that the believers in our Christ 
shall live a thousand years in Jerusalem, and after 
that shall be the general, and, in a word, the eternal 
resurrection and judgment of all together :' Eusebius 
in his Ecclesiastical History, mentions among the 
works or books belonging to Miletus, one of the bish- 
ops of Sardis, one of the seven churches of Asia, 
about seventy-five years after the book was written, 
' the Revelation of John ; ' Ireneus, bishop of Lyons, 
in Gaul, about A. D. 178, who in his younger days 
was acquainted with Polycarp, who was discipled to 
Christ by the apostle John, often quotes this book as 
'the Revelation of John the apostle of our Lord.'" 
Finally, I may remark, that there was no doubt or 
difference of opinion in regard to the authenticity of 



OF THE PllOPHETS. 29 

this book, until men arose in the Church of corrupt 
minds, who despised its doctrines, disbelieved its 
promises, and doubted its prophecies. For further 
testimonies of ancient Christians, the reader is re- 
ferred to the excellent work on this subject, by Dr. 
Lardner. 

[V. 3. Blessed is he that readeth] — Here is an 
implied duty, resting upon all parents, guardians, 
and ministers, to feed the lambs of Christ, by teach- 
ing them to read, that from their childhood they may 
know the holy Scriptures, which are able to make 
them wise unto salvation, through faith in Christ 
Jesus. But there is a direct duty devolving on all 
the people of God, and all who desire to be his, to 
search the Scriptures, to know and to do his will, and 
be blessed and happy forever. Here the right is given 
to every individual, without distinction, to read and 
think, and exercise his own private judgment in re- 
gard to the promises and prophecies of this book, 
being responsible to God, the Judge of all, for what- 
soever he may do, whether right or wrong. 

[And they that hear the words of this prophecy] — 
The things which are written belong unto us and to our 
children; and we are not merely required to read in- 
dividually and privately, but we are to attend upon 
the public reading and expounding of the words of 
God, heeding the apostolic injunction, " Forget not 
the assembling of yourselves together," for this ex- 
press purpose, as was the manner of all faithful Chris- 



30 PREDICTIONS 

tians, to hear the godly exhortations of each other, 
lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 
And so much the more is it necessary to obey this 
injunction, since faith comes by hearing, and saving 
faith even by hearing the word of (rod. But es- 
pecially "the words of this prophecy," as it is the 
last and most important of all the words given to 
man by his Creator, Redeemer, Saviour, Judge, and 
Eternal Sovereign. 

[And keepeth the things which are written there- 
in] — -The blessing promised in this Scripture is not 
to that man mostly who reads or hears the words of 
God, but specially to all who remember and practice 
the things they have read and heard, and believed ; 
for we are not to be hearers of the word only, but 
doers also ; for that man alone who truly does the 
commandments of God is blessed in his deeds. The 
errors and innovations which have corrupted the doc- 
trines and practices of all who profess Christianity, 
have come in openly, or crept in unawares, by not 
keeping the things which are written in this hook. 
This is the book of heavenly aphorisms. It contains 
the truth under symbols of a deep double, and some- 
times a sevenfold meaning. It contains the great 
problems of divine truth, which will not be fully 
solved till the night of time is past, and the day of 
eternity begins to dawn. And it is thus this book 
teaches the whole duty of man, under the Gospel 
Dispensation; and therefore we are especially en- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 31 

joined to keep the things which are written therein, 
and most solemnly warned not to add to or take from 
the words of the book of this prophecy; or else we 
shall incur the most awful penalties forever. 

[For the time is at hand] — When every one shall 
receive a just recompense of reward, for keeping 
or neglecting the things which are written in this 
book. And also the time is at hand when the proph- 
ecies of this book will begin to be fulfilled, and then 
you will need all the strength, courage, and comfort 
which the words of this prophecy will impart. 
Therefore, read, hear, believe, remember, obey. Hap- 
py will that servant be whom his Lord, at the time 
of his coming, shall find so doing. Therefore, ye, 
beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy 
faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in 
the love of God (by keeping his written word), look- 
ing for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto 
eternal life. 

[V. 4. John to the seven churches in Asia] — 
There were other churches or assemblies of Chris- 
tians in other parts of Asia and the world; for the 
pious or devout Jews from every nation under 
heaven, who were present on the day of Pentecost, 
had returned to their homes, carrying with them the 
first fruits of Christanity as a token of its present 
blessings, and certainty of its final triumphs. But 
these seven churches were probably the largest and 
most important, from their localities and other 



32 PREDICTIONS 

causes, which gave them a preference, and made 
them the most desirable repositories of the doctrines, 
promises, and prophecies of this book. Moreover, 
John was acquainted with these churches, and in all 
probability had been the means, under God, of dis- 
cipling many of the members of these churches, by 
turning them from their idols and vanities to serve 
Christ. With this verse the dedication of this 
prophecy begins, and in almost the same manner of 
nearly all the prophets of the Jewish church. The 
name of the prophet was prefixed to the message 
which he received from God, to give unto the people. 
Thus : " The vision of Isaiah the son of Amos, which 
he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem ; the words 
of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa ; 
the word of the Lord came unto Jonah; and so the 
Revelation of Jesus Christ, which he sent and signi- 
fied to his servant John," is the vision of John, which 
he saw concerning the seven churches in Asia, and 
Mystic Babylon, and the heavenly Jerusalem. The 
Asia mentioned here is what is known as Asia Mi- 
nor, and now belongs to the Turkish Empire. It is a 
peninsula, situated between the Euxine or Black Sea 
on the north, and the eastern part of the Mediterra- 
nean Sea on the south, and having the iEgean Sea on 
the west. The seven churches were situated in seven 
cities in this province, as we shall notice, .in the 
proper place, in the Annotations. 

[Grace be unto you] — This form of apostolical 



OF THE PROPHETS. 33 

benediction is used in nearly all the epistolary writ- 
ings of the New Testament, and is a short form of 
solemn prayer to God, that his favor and blessings 
may come to all to whom the writings are addressed. 
[And peace] — Is given to us as the result or con- 
sequence of reconciliation and obedience to the di- 
vine government ; and hence the work of righteous- 
ness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, 
quietness, and assurance forever, that this peace 
shall never be taken away, unless we again become 
rebellious and disobedient. "0 that thou hadst 
hearkened unto my commandments, then thy peace 
had been as a river, and thy righteousness as the 
waves of the sea." 

[From him which is, and which was, and which is 
to come] — This language glows with life — life now, 
life past, life to come. — The everlasting; from ever- 
lasting to everlasting. This is the most complete 
description of the Eternity of Being that the mind 
of mortals can possibly conceive ! The now is a 
mere stand-point, changed in a moment, and all is 
was, or is, to come ; all eternity past, or eternity to 
come ; and he who gives grace and peace to his peo- 
ple is this unoriginated, uncreated, and ever existing 
being, the holy and ever blessed Jehovah — the Fa- 
ther, the Son and the Holy Ghost. 

[And from the seven spirits, which are before his 
throne] — The term, seven spirits, has a three-fold 
meaning : I. It signifies God's complete sovereignty, 



34 PREDICTIONS 

and the perfection of his agencies in the government 
of the whole universe. II. It means in this place the 
seven orders of created spirits, which stand before 
his throne ready to do his will, and minister to the 
heirs of salvation. 1. Spirits of just men made per- 
fect; 2. Ordinary angels; 3. Archangels; 4. Cher- 
ubim ; 5. Seraphim ; 6. Principalities ; 7. Powers ; 
all sent forth on errands of mercy and love to the 
good, or to rebuke and punish the bad. III. It sig- 
nifies the seven attributes or perfections of God. 1. 
He is a pure Spirit; 2. He is an eternal Spirit; 3. 
He is an almighty Spirit; 4. He is an immutable 
Spirit; 5. He is an ever-present Spirit; 6. He is an 
all- wise Spirit; 7. He is an all-sustaining Spirit. 
In this sense we are to understand the term, "the 
Seven Spirits of God," in chap, iv, v. 5, of this book. 
And under this emblematic language the Holy Ghost 
is evidently represented. Here, then, we have the 
holy Trinity set forth in a most beautiful order — God 
the Father is, the one which is, and. which was, and 
which is to come. God the Holy Ghost is that Spirit 
which is the seven spirits of God. God the Son,* in 
his divine nature, possesses the eternity of the Father, 
and the perfections of both the Father and the Holy 
Ghost; therefore these three are one God. 

[V. 5. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful wit- 
ness]- — Here we have the testimony of Him who has 
spoken unto us in these last times, whose human na- 
ture was derived from the blessed Virgin Mary, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 35 

through the power of the Holy Ghost, by which he 
took our nature, and was tempted in all points as we 
are, yet without sin, being sustained by the divine 
nature. He is the Lord our righteousness; he mag- 
nified the law and made it honorable. And although 
the divine law is magnified, enlarged in its require- 
ments, Christ, the second Adam, kept it perfectly, 
as an example for us, that we should walk in his 
steps. The ceremonial law made no person perfect, 
but the bringing in of (Christ Jesus) the better hope 
did, by whom we draw nigh to God, for he is the 
Hope of Israel, and the Saviour; and he is that 
Hope which is within the vail, in whom our hope is 
anchored. Wherefore the ceremonial law served as 
a schoolmaster to train and lead us to Christ, who is 
the end of this law, for every one which believeth in 
him. He has also shown the moral law to be hon- 
orable in all its requirements, not exacting any more 
than the subject can perform, and hereby showing 
God to be just in his government, and the justifier 
of all who believe in the testimony of Jesus Christ, 
the true witness, who was firm in his adherence to 
the truth and duties of religion in the letter and the 
spirit ; wherefore it is a faithful saying, and worthy 
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the 
world to save sinners from their sins, and with an 
everlasting salvation. 

[The first-begotten of the dead] — In 1 Cor. xv, 20, 
Christ is called the first-fruits of them that slept. 



36 PKEDICTIONS 

In Col. i, 18, He is called the first-born from the 
dead; that is, he is the first one who had ever come 
back from the dominions of death, never to return 
again, that in all things he might have the pre-emi- 
nence ; for it was impossible that he should be held 
by the power of Death, for his resurrection was as 
naturally the result of laws known and controlled by 
him, as that the birth of a mother's first-born is the 
result of known laws ; for he is the resurrection and 
the life ; therefore he has full power to produce the 
resurrection of all mankind, and perpetuate their life 
for evermore. Amen. 

In the text before us he is called the first-begotten 
of the dead. He is the first-fruits of them that slept 
in the grave, and came forth in a natural resurrec- 
tion, never to die again; while all others have had 
some visible cause applied, in the sense of a cause 
producing an effect, to resurrect them; and then 
sooner or later, returning back to the dominions of 
Death. But again, Christ is called the first-fruits : 
And inasmuch as the first ripe wheat in the field is 
evidence that the harvest is at hand, and that all will 
ripen in due time ; so the resurrection of Chris is 
the emblem of our resurrection, and because he arose 
from the dead, even so shall we also arise from the 
dead. The terms first-begotten, first-born, and first- 
fruits, in Scripture language, signify the chief or 
head; and so in this passage, Christ is the chief or 
conqueror of Death. And the term first-begotten is 



OP THE PROPHETS. 37 

put by apposition with Prince of the kings of the 
earth. That he is the Prince of princes: of all, 
past, present, and to come, who has them all under 
his dominion and control, and can dispose of them 
as he will, and when he will, and reward them ac- 
cordingly as they may have labored to overthrow or 
establish his kingdom in the world. 

[Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our 
sins, with his own blood] — Here our salvation is as- 
cribed to the love and blood of Christ. The love of 
God in Christ is the producing cause of man's sal- 
vation ; and the blood of Christ, by the grace of God, 
is the procuring cause; for we have redemption 
through his blood, even the remission of all our sins. 
There is no other medium of access to God, or means 
of salvation, but by Christ and his blood. There- 
fore, the redemption of the soul, with the remission 
of sins and purification from all unrighteousness, is 
here, as in all the New Testament, attributed to the 
blood of Christ shed on the cross for man; For if 
the blood (which is the life) of bulls, and of goats, 
and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, 
sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh ; how much 
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the 
eternal Spirit, offered himself without blemish to 
God, purify your conscience from dead works to 
serve the living God in spirit and in truth, whereof 
the Holy Ghost is a witness to us. 

[V. 6. And hath made us kings and priests unto 
4 



35 PREDICTIONS 

God and his Father] — Christ had already made the 
apostles kings, declaring that they should sit on 
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 
They had already, in the gospels and epistles, set 
forth the laws which were to govern men to the end 
of the world, and by which, as the rule of action, 
they were to judge and reward, pardon and punish, 
as kings. And they were already priests, officiating 
according to the Ritual dictated by Christ, beseech- 
ing man in his name, as the only sacrifice for sin, to 
be reconciled to God; and take the oath of allegiance 
to his government, entering into covenant with him 
by baptism, and devoting themselves forever to his 
service. Under the former dispensations, God was 
worshiped representatively; but now Christ has 
opened a neiv and living way which he has consecrated 
for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh, and 
having therefore, brethren, boldness or liberty to 
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, the high 
priest, over the house of God ; wherefore he is able 
also to save them to the uttermost, that come unto 
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make .interces- 
sion for them. Let us draw near with a true heart, 
in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled 
from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with 
pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of faith, 
without wavering, which we made when we received 
the baptismal water, the emblem of inward and out- 
ward purity ; for he is faithful that promised us 



OF THE PROPHETS. 39 

spiritual baptism, by which our hearts are renewed 
and we are sanctified throughout, soul, body and 
spirit. And let us consider one another, to provoke 
unto love, and to good works, that we may prove our 
profession of faith to be true and sincere, to all who 
may know us. Not forsaking the assembling of our- 
selves together as the manner of some is, but meet 
regularly, and spend the time exhorting one another 
to hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to 
the end ; and admonish one another in psalms and 
hymns and spiritual songs; and so much the more, 
as ye see the day approaching when Christ shall save 
his friends and miserably destroy his enemies. The 
glorious states of the children of God are repre- 
sented under the titles of kings and priests, as the 
highest privileges and prerogatives which can pos- 
sibly exist among men ; and we are all partakers of 
these without respect of persons. 

[V. 6. To him be glory and dominion] — We are 
made kings and priests to him, to whom we are to 
ascribe all the glory and salvation of our priestly 
office ; and all the power and wisdom of our kingly 
dominions ; but we are made kings and priests unto 
God, that is, Christ and his Father ; therefore Christ 
is God, and is to be adored forever and ever, for what 
he has done, and what he has promised to do for his 
people. 

[Amen] — A word of affirmation and approbation. 
So it shall be ; so it ought to be ; the people of God 



40 PREDICTIONS 

will praise him for what he has clone for them ; 
and they ought to praise him throughout all ages, 
world without end. Amen. 

[Y. 7. Behold ! he cometh with clouds] — What the 
prophet saw in vision was before him, and he speaks 
of it as then present, and actually taking place ; but 
the meaning is, that he will come at the appointed 
time. That time will come so soon, that it is as if it 
were now ; we all shall soon be in a state of being, 
where there is no change of our condition, any more 
than if the Judge had already come and appointed 
us our eternal doom ; for as death finds us, so will 
the day of judgment. His coming with clouds may 
have a two-fold sense. He may use the clouds as the 
chariots of his descent, which we are told positively 
he will, when he returns again to this world ; and it 
may signify, emblematically, the vast multitude of 
the heavenly host, who will fill as the clouds, all 
ethereal space, when he shall come the second time 
with all his saints. 

[And every eye shall see him] — Here the doctrine 
of the resurrection is most clearly declared ; for how 
can every eye, which signifies every man, see him, 
without there be a resurrection of the just and the 
unjust? The righteous, who had been watching and 
waiting for his coming, shall see with joyful eyes, 
and glad hearts, the king in his beauty and glory. 
While they which have pierced him in the world, and 
wounded him in the house of his friends, shall see 



OF THE PROPHETS. 41 

him whether they will or not; because there will be 
a resurrection of all mankind, to receive a just re- 
compense for the deeds they have done, whether good 
or evil. 

[And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because 
of him] — If they have been of those who despised, 
pierced and rejected him ; for he is no respecter of 
any man or nation, but will reward every one accord- 
ing to his works. 

[Even so Amen] — Justice and judgment belong to 
God : it is impossible for him to lie ; whatever he 
has promised to the good or bad, is true ; and it will 
be so ; and it ought to be so : and his justice requires 
that it shall be so. Therefore the wicked shall go 
away into everlasting punishment ; and the righteous 
shall enter into life eternal, where there is no more 
pain, nor sorrow, nor death ; and there shall be no 
more curse ; for the causes which produced all these 
shall have passed away with the old heavens and the 
old earth. 

[Y. 8. I am Alpha and Omega] — This is an aph- 
orism or proverbial form of speech, used among the 
ancients, and signified from first to last, from the be- 
ginning to the end ; as applied here to Christ, it sig- 
nifies his eternity of being, I am from eternity to 
eternity. " It is worthy of remark," says Dr. Clark, 
" that as the union of aleph and tau, in the Hebrew, 
make ath or et, which the Rabbins interpret, of the 
first matter out of which all things were formed; so 



42 PREDICTIONS 

the Union of Alpha and Omega in the Greek, make the 
verb AO, I breathe, and may very properly, in such a 
book of symbols, point out him, in whom we live 
and move and have our being ; for having formed 
man out of the dust of the earth, he breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living 
soul. And it is by the inspiration or inbreathing of 
his Holy Spirit, that the souls of men are now 
quickened, made alive from the dead, and fitted for 
eternal life. Here our Lord claims the unequivocal 
attributes of divinity ; by declaring most positively 
the eternity of his being, and omnipotence of hi3 
power." 

[V. 9. I John, who am also your brother] — Not 
merely a Christian friend, or your Christian friend ; 
but your brother; what a world of meaning is in 
these household words, brother and brethren. Let 
ns drop the cant phrase, " my Christian friends," 
and go back to apostolic simplicity, affection and 
custom ! Although John was so highly favored of 
God, and so much despised by Satan, he was still a 
Christian brother, begotten of God to a living hope, 
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and although 
banished from them, still belonging to the great 
family of true believers, and was heir with them to 
the same heavenly inheritance, reserved in heaven 
for all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. 

[Companion in tribulation] — Suffering a deep, 
heartfelt sorrow for them, and they for him, who 



OF THE PROPHETS. 43 

were afflicted by the same persecuting power which 
had banished him to a lonely island of the sea. The 
relation of brother is as lasting as life ; and that of 
Christian brethren to eternal life. But that of com- 
panion may be for a short time only ; and especially 
was this true in the early ages of the Church, with 
those who were companions in tribulation for Christ. 
But the sorrows that come to the Christian in this 
life, shall come to his rescue and hasten him home, 
where he shall join the general assembly and Church 
of the first-born, which are written in heaven — those 
souls who arose immediately after Christ's resurrec- 
tion, and went with him at the time of his ascension 
unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jeru- 
salem. And for our comfort we are told that after 
Christ's resurrection, which was the first fruits of 
them that slept, that " the graves were opened, and 
many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and 
came out of the graves, after his resurrection, and 
appeared unto many, and went into the holy city " — 
that is, the heavenly Jerusalem — and these saints evi- 
dently compose the Church of the first-born, which 
are written in heaven, and were taken to heaven by 
Christ as his first fruits, and which he will bring 
with him at his appearing and kingdom ; that is, to 
compose a part of his kingdom forever. 

[In the kingdom] — For we are fellow-heirs with 
the royal priesthood, and joint heirs with Christ 
Jesus to an eternal kingdom ; for if we suffer with 



44 PREDICTIONS 

him, we shall also reign with him, world without end. 
Amen. 

[The isle that is called Patmos] — This island is 
situated in the JEgean Sea, between the island of 
Icaria and the promontory of Miletus. It is now 
called Pactino, Patmol or Palmosa. It has derived 
its principal celebrity from being the place to which 
St. John was banished by one of the Roman empe- 
rors, about A. D., 100. There is a Catholic convent 
on the island, situated on a beautiful hill, and well 
fortified, and dedicated to St. John the apostle. It 
is a barren island, producing very little grain of any 
kind, but abounding in quails, pigeons, rabbits, snipes, 
turtles, etc. The whole island is about thirty miles 
in circumference. 

[For the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus 
Christ] — Indicted, prosecuted, condemned and ban- 
ished by a Homan emperoi% for no crime, but simply 
for preaching the Gospel of the Son of God and the 
doctrines of his religion, in demonstration and power 
of the Holy Ghost ; and as faith comes by hearing, 
even by hearing the word of Gocl, especially when 
thus preached, he was instrumental in converting 
sinners to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is a 
power still in the world, called bigotry or false reli- 
gion, that would do the same, for it is the same if it 
had the power of bygone p.ges. But, thank Gocl, the 
conflict of ages has weakened its power ; yet there 
is still a lingering, heartfelt malice against all who 



OF THE PROPHETS. 45 

contend that " the word of God and the testimony of 
Jesus Christ" are a sufficient and perfect rule for 
our faith and practice, without the aid of human 
traditions. Yes; for a disbelief of her human doc- 
trines, and a disregard of her commandments of men 
which she teaches, are of more importance than the 
counsels or commandments of Jesus Christ; she 
would indict, prosecute and condemn you for no other 
crime, as guilty of blasphemy or treason against 
God and man ; and you would be banished or burned, 
as the host of martyrs whom this mystic Babylon 
hath slain ; and for no other crime than that they 
would not believe in these doctrines — such as bap- 
tismal regeneration, transubstantiation, priestly ab- 
solution, unconditional election and reprobation, pur- 
gatory, superorogation, etc. ; ail these, and many 
more of a like nature, Babylon teaches, and requires 
men to believe ; and those who will not believe and 
obey her, she denounces as if they were doomed to 
eternal damnation : " But I say unto you, my 
friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and 
after that have no more that they can do ; But I will 
forewarn you whom ye shall fear ; Fear him, which 
after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; 
yea, I say unto you, Fear him." 

[V. 10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day] — 
The Spirit of glory and of God rested upon him, 
overshadowing him as the Shekinah did the Taber- 
nacle in the wilderness, and in like manner as on the 



46 PREDICTIONS 

day of Pentecost ; and he was under its influence on 
the Lord's day, and prepared thereby to deliver to 
the Church, throughout all ages to come, the won- 
derful things which were thus made known to him 
by the Spirit of Prophecy. The term Lord's day, 
is internal evidence that this book was not written 
until some time subsequent to the resurrection of 
our Lord; for it is reasonable to suppose that the 
Church must have become quite extensive in her in- 
fluence before they could, by common consent, have 
dedicated and observed this as the Lord's day, in 
commemoration of his resurrection, and for the pur- 
pose of observing the ordinances of his Gospel, and 
instructing men in the doctrines and duties of the 
kingdom of heaven. However, Christ honored this 
day, and sanctioned its religious observance, that in 
this, as in all things else, he might have the pre-emi- 
nence ; for lie is Lord also of the Sabbath day, which 
he declares was made for man; for the whole race, 
in all climes and conditions and ages. This is the 
Christian Sabbath, or first day of the week, and has 
taken the place of the Jewish Sabbath, and is as 
binding in its obligations, the same laws applying to 
it among true Christians throughout the world. 

[I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet] — 
How sudden and unexpected, like all the calls of Di- 
vine Providence, must this voice have been ! John 
felt the divine influence, and, like Daniel or David, 
was meditating upon the wonderful ministrations of 



OF THE PROPHETS. 47 

providence and grace as set forth by Moses and the 
prophets of a bygone dispensation. Thus prepared 
by deep meditation, and awakened by the thrilling 
and thundering sound of a trumpet, waxing louder 
and louder, Moses received the law on Mount Sinai, 
written upon two tables of stone ; so under very 
similar circumstances, John received'this Revelation. 

[V. 11. I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the 
last] — This appears to be a tautology, and the whole 
clause is wanting in a great number of ancient MSS. 
and versions of different languages. Griesbach, who 
is generally considered among the very best author- 
ities, has left it out of the text. 

[Saying what thou seest write in a book] — The 
things which are shown thee in the visions which 
thou shalt see, and the things which shall be told 
thee; for they are to guide, instruct, and comfort my 
people until I come to reign with them, instead of 
suffering with them. 

[Send it unto the seven churches] — The sending 
of this book to the seven churches, has a two-fold 
meaning. It was to be sent to the seven churches, 
the names of which immediately follow. And as the 
number seven is the symbol of perfection or com- 
pleteness, it was to be the treasure of the entire 
Church, in all her trials and conflicts ; and the un- 
changing and unchanged monument of the manifold 
wisdom of her adorable Lord, and the constant 
token of her final and joyful triumph, when the 



48 PREDICTIONS. 

Bridegroom shall return, and receive the Bride to 
himself. 

[Ephesus] — This -was an important seaport town, 
situated on the shore of the iEgean Sea, in the dis- 
trict of Ionia, in Asia Minor, and the nearest to Pat- 
mos, of any of the churches named. This is the or- 
der of the divine economy. Begin at home, ivith thy- 
self, thy family, thy city, thy neighbors, thy country, 
then the' whole world: for its offer is to all; and its 
benefits for all ; and none are excluded, only by their 
own willful neglect or rejection of the Gospel. 

[Smyrna] — Situated on the shore of the iEgean 
Sea, is the largest and richest city of Asia Minor, 
and is noted for its plagues and earthquakes. In 
one of its earthquakes, in 1688, the rock on which 
the city castle was standing, opened, and swallowed 
the castle and five thousand persons ! It is a beau- 
tiful city, and supposed to contain about two hun- 
dred thousand inhabitants, consisting of Greek Chris- 
tians, Roman Catholics, Jews, Mohammedans, and a 
few Protestants. It is now known by the name of 
Ismir. 

[Purgamos] — A city in the province of Mysia, in 
Asia Minor, situated on the river Caicus, and is now 
called Purgamo, and Burgamo. Noted as the royal 
residence of Eumenese, brother of Attalus Philadel- 
phus, and the Attalian kings ; and for its fine parch- 
ments, and magnificent library, containing two hun- 
dred thousand volumes. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 49 

[Thyatira] — A city of the province of Notalia, in 
Asia Minor, on the banks of the river Hermus, sur- 
rounded by a beautiful plain, about 18 miles wide. 
Remarkable ancient inscriptions have been found 
among the ruins of this place. It is now called by 
the inhabitants Akissat or Akkissar. 

[Sardis] — A town also of the province of Kotalia. 
about forty miles east of Smyrna. It is built on the 
side of Mt. Timolus, and was the royal residence of 
the noted Lydian Kings. Here rich Croesus reigned. 
But it is now a poor inconsiderable village, known 
by the name of Sart or Sardo. Thus passes the 
glory of the world. 

[Philadelphia] — Also a city of Notalia, situated on 
the plain, between the river Cogamus, and Mt. Timo- 
lus. It is stated in history, that it was founded by 
Attains Philadelplms, brother of Eumenese, from 
which it derived its ancient name; it is now called 
Attala-sheker, and is about forty miles south-east of 
Smyrna. 

[Laodicea] — A city of Phrygia, in Asia Minor, on 
the banks of the river Lycus. It was at first called 
Diaspolis, or the city of Jove, or Jupiter. It was 
built by Antiochus Theos, and named after his con- 
sort, Laodicea. (See Dr. Adam Clarke.) 

[V. 12. And I turned to see the voice that spake 
with me] — This is a figure of speech, called in rhet- 
oric a metonomy, and seldom met with. But as this 
book is so very figurative, we shall do well to watch 



50 PKEDICTIONS 

for its true meaning under symbols, metaphors, 
parables, or allegories, rather than in plain, simple 
language. Therefore we are to understand that he 
turned around to see the person from whom the voice 
came. 

[Seven golden candlesticks] — It should be trans- 
lated seven golden lamps, and would thereby be lit- 
erally correct, and analogous to the parable of the 
lamps of the ten virgins. However, this translation, 
as it is in the common version, seems to seize upon 
the true sense of the text ; for the light here has ref- 
erence to a stationary use, as in the Tabernacle and 
Temple; so in the Christian Church, its individual 
members are its lamps or candlesticks; and being 
gathered together into one assembly, or church, form 
a most beautiful and perfect group, represented by 
the seven golden candlesticks. As each candlestick 
was to receive and reflect light, so of each member 
of the church. And as each candlestick was golden, 
to signify its value, and inward purity, and outward 
beauty, so there must be an inward and outward pu- 
rity of each member of the Church, to give it a 
golden value. These seven candlesticks, represent 
the seven churches in Asia, which were situated in 
relation to each other, very much after the order of 
the seven candlesticks in the Tabernacle, in which 
the love of God was continually burning, and the 
light of God continually shining. As we have al- 
ready remarked, seven is the symbol of perfection 



OF THE PROPHETS. 51 

or completeness; and therefore these seven candle- 
sticks represent assemblies or churches composed of 
individual Christians in all times and ages. Away 
with the doctrine, that the Church is not composed 
of individual Christians; but that it is an indescrib- 
able, and indefinable something, called the Church. 

[V. 13. Like unto the Son of man clothed with a 
garment down to the feet] — John was doubtless per- 
plexed at the first interview to determine who it was 
that he saw ; yet he was well aware that the person 
who stood before him was like unto the Son of man, 
with whom he was most intimate while he sojourned 
among men, clothed in our common humanity, so 
that he felt an iirward assurance that it was our 
blessed Lord, whom he had seen at different times in 
his glorified person. There are stranger things in 
regard to the relations which exist between the living 
and the dead ; between the inhabitants of heaven 
and earth; their power of visiting and revisiting, 
and changing or suspending the known laws of mat- 
ter, than our dark philosophy has ever dreamed of, 
or ever would have known without this Revelation. 
Here Christ comes all the way from heaven, the me- 
tropolis of the universe, clothed in garments down to 
his feet, girt with a golden girdle, the emblem of his 
regal power and sacred dignity, like the Jewish high 
priest in his sacerdotal robes. But Jesus Christ is 
our High Priest, even in heaven. He is still dis- 
charging the priestly office as the high priest of our 



52 PEEBICIIOXS 

profession before the throne of God; and he is the 
only priest in the universe of God that can forgive 
sins ; and there are no other priests in this world 
now, who are Christ's, in the sense of an order of 
men in his Church ; for all Christians, without dis- 
tinction, are priests to present their sacrifices of 
prayer, praise and thanksgiving from a broken and 
contrite heart, to God by Jesus Christ our Great 
High Priest, who ever liveth to make intercession for 
them before the throne of God, who bring then sac- 
rifices to him. by Jesus Christ, the only High Priest, 
and the only name under heaven among men whereby 
we can or must be saved. Away with your order of 
priests ; Christ never ordained any such an order 
for this dispensation. God is not worshiped repre- 
sentatively or by proxy, but directly and individually 
by every soul of man, who must come as his own 
priest, or priest for himself, and offer his sacrifice; 
offer himself to our Great High Priest, the Lamb 
of God, who taketh away the sin of the world, and 
who gives this honor to none other, further than to 
make them the instruments in his hand in directing 
men to this all-atoning Lamb and High Priest, who 
is a merciful and faithful high priest, and able, and 
ready, and willing to absolve all our sins the very 
moment we repent and fully trust in his promises, 
believing that he will in nowise cast off any who 
come to him for salvation. 

[V. 14. His head and his hairs were white like 



OF THE PllOPHETS. 53 

wool, as white as snow] — Here are two emblems 
used; white wool is the emblem of wisdom; with 
him are treasured up all the treasures of wisdom 
and knowledge. White wool is also the emblem of 
eternity; he is the same in all his attributes, yester- 
day, to-day, and forever. Snow is the emblem of 
perfect purity; pure, in all the purposes of his 
priesthood ; pure in all his teachings ; and pure and 
true in all the promises of his word. Therefore, he 
is perfectly pure ; infinitely wise, and eternally the 
same in his government of the universe. This 
whiteness about the head was certainly occasioned 
by the outbeaming rays of light, manifesting itself 
from the embodied Deity, as at the time of his trans- 
figuration in the holy Mount, when his clothes were 
whiter than any fuller on earth could whiten them, 
and his face did shine as the sun. 

[His eyes were as a flame of fire] — The eye is the 
emblem of watchfulness and vigilance; but, being- 
like fire, is an emblem used to denote the all-pervad- 
ing nature of the divine knowledge. Fire pervades 
all things; so does the divine knowledge. All things 
lie open before him. Nothing can escape his notice. 
How shall we escape, then, if we refuse him and ne- 
glect his great salvation ? Jesus Christ is represented 
in this book under three titles : 1. The High Priest, 
passed into the heavens for us. 2. The True Wit- 
ness or Prophet, to teach us by his word and spirit. 



54 PREDICTIONS 

3. He is the King of kings, and of his dominion 
there is no end. 

[V. 15. His feet like unto fine brass] — In figura- 
tive language, the feet represent the foundation ; and 
they, being like fine brass, indicate the stability of 
his government and the permanence of his kingdom. 

Fine brass, mentioned in the Old Testament, was 
more precious or valuable than gold, and was con- 
sidered the most durable of all metallic substances. 
But the process of compounding it is now numbered 
among the lost arts ; therefore, the value and dura- 
bility of this metal are just emblems of the value 
and durability of his kingdom, which is everlasting, 
and of his dominion which shall have no end. The 
melting of copper with its compounds, to make brass, 
gives a glowing flame, the most intensely vivid that 
can be imagined. His feet of fine brass, " as if they 
burned in a furnace of brass/' is a figure of speech, 
the propriety and accuracy of which, none could 
doubt, and every one must feel, who has ever viewed 
such a furnace. 

[His voice as the sound of many waters] — The 
voice is the emblem of authority, and waters of pu- 
rity and comfort. There was a power, purity, com- 
fort and resistless energy in his voice, like the noise 
of convergent waters from half a continent, pouring 
over a mighty cataract, which none could resist or 
turn from its course in its tremendous thunderings 
and onward way ; so of the voice or word of him 



OF THE PROPHETS. 55 

who taketh up the isles as pebbles, and holdeth the 
waters of the seas in the hollow of his hand ; it 
shall not be stopped in its course ; it shall accom- 
plish that which he pleases ; it shall be his instru- 
ment, as the rain and the snow from heaven, to 
purify and refresh mankind ; and it shall prosper in 
the thing whereunto he shall send it ; it shall give 
moral strength, health and comfort to the nations, 
and none can stop it in its onward course. His voice 
or word is as the river of life, healthful, refreshing, 
cleansing, comforting; therefore, the sound of his 
voice or word is as the river, the streams whereof 
make glad the city of God. 

[V. 16. In his right hand seven stars] — The seven 
stars are said to be the seven angels, messengers or 
ministers of the seven churches. But as seven is 
the number of perfection, it is an emblem of the 
whole ministry of the Church throughout all ages. 
And whoever hears a faithful minister, hears Christ, 
and whoever despises a faithful minister, despises 
Christ and his counsels of grace. They are all stars 
borrowing their light from the Sun of Righteousness. 
They can do nothing without him to enlighten, direct 
and sustain them. Therefore, they are held in his 
right hand ; which shows that they are under his 
special Providence and powerful protection, accord- 
ing to his promise. Lo ! I am with you always, even 
unto the end of the world. 

[Out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword] 



56 PREDICTIONS 

— The sharp sword, with two edges, is an emblem of 
the strict justice, in the administration of the Divine 
government. It also represents the word of God, 
which is called the sword of the Spirit, the instru- 
ment, or means used by the Holy Ghost, in the 
awakening, converting and saving sinners, according 
to the gospel system. And hence it is contained in 
the Scriptures, " The word of God is quick and 
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, pierc- 
ing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." 
And especially is it so, when in the hand of the 
Spirit, and used for the destruction of sin. 

[And his countenance was as the sun, shining in 
his strength] — This is the emblem of all blessings, 
and is analogous to that expression of the Psalmist, 
speaking in his simple, yet beautiful style, " The 
Lord God is a sun, and a shield; he will give grace 
and glory ; and no good thing will he withhold from 
them who walk uprightly." As the sun shines in the 
morning, and more and more unto the perfect day ; so 
the Gentiles are to come to Christ, and the kingdoms 
of the world to the brightness of his rising. His face 
was as the sun in the brightest summer day, when 
there are no clouds to obscure his splendor. We 
have the promise that we shall see light in his light ; 
that is, we shall enjoy the light of his countenance. 
Therefore, " Let them that love him, be as the sun, 
when he goeth forth in his might." 

[Y. 17. I fell at his feet as dead] — So overwhelm- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 57 

ing was the sight of such glorious majesty, that it 
was more than the apostle could bear, and he fell 
down, insensible to all surrounding objects, as men 
have seen and known of hundreds in these last days. 
It is my own experience, and I must say with St. 
John, I have known those who fell at his feet as 
dead! But the right hand, and the cheering voice 
of him who is the resurrection and the life, gave him 
power and comfort for the work which he was to 
perform. But some are ready to say of all such 
powerful influences, which a sense of our unworthi- 
ness, and the manifestation of the Divine presence 
produces over the mind and body, that it is " animal 
excitement." " It is mere human excitement." Our 
physical system is influenced by the power of the 
Holy Ghost, at the time of our conversion and sanc- 
tification ; and at all times when the Spirit of Glory 
and God dwells specially in us, or manifests him- 
self to us in any unusual manner. Away with this 
doctrine, that all such influence is mere animal ex- 
citement, the result of a heated imagination ; or the 
offspring of a very weak mind. What will such do 
with Paul, Daniel and John ? 

[V. 18. I am he that liveth, and was dead, and be- 
hold! I am alive forevermore. Amen.] — I am the 
fountain of life; yet I died for man, and by the 
grace of the Father, I tasted death for every man. 
And having arisen from the dead, I shall die no 
more ; for death hath no more dominion over me. 



58 PREDICTIONS 

Therefore, I am alive forevermore. Amen. It 
ought to be so. It will be so; and it shall be so; 
for I have the keys of death and the grave ; so that 
I can destroy the living and raise the dead; there- 
fore I am the resurrection and the life. The key is 
the emblem of power and authority, and denotes the 
power of Christ over life, death and hell; for all 
power in heaven and earth is his; for he is the Al- 
mighty. 

[~V. 19. Write the things which thou hast seen] — 
So that it may be kept as indisputable documentary 
evidence, to which nothing is to be added, and from 
which nothing is to be taken. The time will come, 
when all these things will be of general and special 
use to the Church ; and so much the more, as men 
of corrupt minds will come in among you, and teach 
the traditions of men, as more binding than the 
commandments of God. And by their tradition, 
they will turn men away from the simplicity of the 
Gospel, and corrupt, if possible, the doctrines, which 
declare the duties and practices of all who are called 
Christians. Therefore have these things carefully 
recorded, and I will see to it, that they shall be pre- 
served, so that if men clo not teach according to the 
written testimony, it is because there is no light nor 
truth in them. 

[V. 20. The mystery of the seven stars, which 
thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden 
candlesticks] — Here follows the explanation of these ; 



•OP THE PROPHETS. 59 

and it is worthy of our notice, that, as mysterious 
or allegorical as this book is, that on close observa- 
tion we shall find that all the symbols, emblems, par- 
ables or allegorical relations and representations, 
have their foundation in something real in life, or 
nature, or fact, or custom, or general opinion, and 
from which a grand and sublime moral is drawn, for 
the instruction of mankind. We will close our an- 
notations on this chapter with a few practical re- 
marks in regard to the principles or doctrines ex- 
pressed, or implied in it. 

1. We have the existence of God, his eternity, his 
royal and sacerdotal sovereignty, his almighty power, 
his immutability, the trinity in unity : in a word, the 
indescribable and incomprehensible perfections of 
God; the atonement and salvation of man by the 
blood of Jesus Christ. The resurrection and eternal 
life exemplified in Jesus Christ the first begotten, the 
first born, and the first fruits, our head and repre- 
sentative in heaven. The promise of the constant 
comfort, light, power and fellowship of the Holy 
Ghost to be with the Church forevermore, to enlighten, 
direct and sustain all her members, individually and 
collectively. The doctrine of the resurrection, both 
of the just and the unjust, of a general judgment, 
and everlasting rewards of the righteous, and eternal 
punishment of the finally impenitent. 

2. But to be more particular on the closing verse, 
the seven stars may allude to the seals of different 



60 PREDICTIONS • 

officers of royal governments, each of whom had his 
own peculiar seal. So in the divine government, 
every man has his own peculiar office and work, 
which should bear his own peculiar seal or impress. 
Every man should be himself, do his own work, 
maintain his own individuality, as the stars, and yet 
keep the unity of the Spirit, and, like the stars, 
though differing in glory, we shall be like them, en- 
lightened, directed and sustained in all our course 
by the right hand of power, and make a glorious, 
heavenly system. The stars are to shine in the 
dark; so we are to shine in the darkness of this 
world, in the midst of a crooked and perverse gen- 
eration, wherein we shine as lights. Stars are con- 
tinually traveling on over the world ; so Christians, 
and especially ministers, are to go over all the world, 
to cause the light of the Gospel to shine among all 
men : for ye are the light of the world ; go forth as 
children of the light. 

3. The churches are represented under the simili- 
tude of lamps or candlesticks. The lamp or candle- 
stick is not light in itself; so of the Church, indi- 
vidually or collectively. The lamp must receive the 
oil, and the ivicJc, and the fire ; for it is merely an in- 
strument for this purpose ; and then it must be kept 
in a condition and position to give or reflect that 
which it has first received ; so no individual Chris- 
tian, or church, has, in itself, either the oil of divine 
grace, the wick of divine truth, or the fire of divine 



OF THE PROPHETS. 01 

light, love and glory. The individual Christian (for 
it is these which compose the Church) must receive 
all directly from Christ the Head, else they can dis- 
pense neither light nor life to others, or enjoy these 
themselves. 

4. The ministers of the Gospel are as signets or 
seals set in rings, and worn upon the right hand of 
Jesus Christ. He uses them to stamp his Truth, to 
accredit his word, and give currency to his royal 
proclamation in the Gospel. But as a seal can do 
nothing of itself, unless applied or used by a wise 
power to direct it ; so the ministers of Christ can do 
no good, seal no truth, impress the image of Christ 
on no soul, unless the Sovereign Owner, by the Holy 
Ghost, condescend to use them for this purpose. 

5. In vain does any Church pretend to be the 
Church of Christ, if it reflect no light ; that is, if 
souls are not spiritually illuminated, quickened into 
life, converted from their sins, bearing the impress 
and reflecting the imao;e of Christ. If Jesus is in 
the Church, its light will shine from him, clearly, di- 
rectly and powerfully; and will be reflected in like 
manner from all its true members, and sinners will 
be converted unto him; and the members of that 
Church will be children of the light, and walk as 
children of the light and of the day, and there will 
be no occasion of stumbling in them. 

6. Finally, how careful should the ministers of 
Christ be to proclaim or teach nothing as truth, but 

6 



62 PREDICTIONS 

what is according to the ivritten law and testimony, 
which comes with the divine impress "of their Master. 
They should take heed to themselves, as well as to 
the doctrines they teach, and the flock which they 
feed; lest, after having preached to others, they 
make shipwreck of the faith, and should he cast- 
aivays ; lest God should say unto them as he said to 
Coniah — " As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah, 
the son of Jehoakim, were the signet upon my right 
hand, yet would I pluck thee thence." On the other 
hand, if they be faithful, their labor in the Lord 
shall not be in vain; and they shall he saved. He 
that toucheth them, saith the Lord, toucheth the 
apple of mine eye ; I will reprove kings for their 
sakes, and none shall be able to pluck them out of 
my hand. They are angels and ambassadors from 
the court of Heaven; their persons are sacred; they 
are the messengers of the Churches, and the glory 
of Christ ; and should they lose their lives for his 
sake, it will only be a release from service the sooner 
to depart and be with Christ, in the glorious man- 
sions he has gone to prepare in the city of the New 
Jerusalem ! 



OF THE PROPHETS. 63 



CHAPTER II. 



Under the allegory of the Seven Churches in Asia, 
I believe the seven ages of the Church is most beau- 
tifully and wonderfully foretold. I hold that an age 
of the Church, is 420 years, or fourteen generations. 
This is a very notable period in the history of man- 
kind ; for from the Deluge to Abraham was fourteen 
generations or 420 years — and the same from Abra- 
ham to Moses — the same from Moses to David — the 
same from David to the carrying away of the Jews 
into Babylon — the same from this captivity unto the 
coming of Christ. 

1. Epliesus, signifies the city of desire, or desir- 
able city ; this is the allegory of the first age of the 
Christian Church. This was true to the letter; it 
was the most desirable age the Church ever saw — 
she was then in her first love — she was abundant in 
works of body, labor of mind and patience of spirit. 
It was in this age, and this only, that she could try 
them which said they were Apostles, and were not, 
and therefore proved them liars. This was the 
Ephesian age. 

2. Smyrna, signifies myrrh, or bitterness ; the city 
of bitterness. This is the allegory under which in- 
finite wisdom foretold the second age of the Church. 
This representation was true to the letter, which we 



64 PREDICTIONS 

could show the reader by abundant quotations from 
history, and which we do show in our large work on 
Prophecy. This age of the Church includes the 
period of time from A. D., 420 to 840. 

This was the bitterest age the Church has ever 
experienced, and was as different from what she was 
in the first age, as if it had been a different institu- 
tion, or organization. It was during this period that 
Idolatry was introduced into the Church, which, in 
the language of Scripture, is styled bitter water, root 
of bitterness, wormwood and gall. This led to the 
most bitter disputations among Christians — both the 
laity and the priesthood; Council clashed against 
Council; Synod against Synod; the East against the 
West. 

Therefore, in view of this state of things, the 
Saviour foretold the Church — " I know thy works," 
or labor among thine open enemies, and among false 
brethren, and thy " tribulation," heartfelt anguish on 
account of thy own sufferings and the persecutions 
that the faithful must suffer for my name' sake, and 
thy " poverty," for they will confiscate thy goods 
(but thou art rich), having an inheritance in heaven, 
a mansion in my father's house ; therefore, take joy- 
fully the spoiling of your worldly goods, knowing 
that you have an enduring inheritance in heaven. 
" And I know the blasphemy of them that say they 
are Jews," but by turning away to the blasphemy of 
Idol worship, prove they are not true Jews ; but al- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 65 

though they may attend to the ordinances of the 
Church, and even build fine churches, they are not 
Jews, " but the synagogue of Satan." " Fear none 
of those things which thou shalt suffer," for righte- 
ousness' sake, from these false brethren ; but be thou 
faithful, do not apostatize in any way or for any 
cause, and I " will give thee a crown of life." He 
that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith 
unto the Churches. This was the Smyrnian age. 

3. Pergamos, signifies the city of high towers, 
exaltation, elevation. Under this allegory, is the 
third age of the Church represented. This age oc- 
cupied the period from A. D., 840 to 1260. Of this 
period of the Church the Saviour predicted, " I know 
thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where 
Satan's seat " of idolatrous government is, and thou 
holdest fast my name, government and authority, as 
contained in my Gospel, and therefore " hast not 
denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas" 
(which word signifies all), " was my faithful martyr, 
who was slain among you" by false brethren ; where 
Satan dwelleth in his ceremonies, rights and institu- 
tions. The Pergamenian age of the Church was 
that in which its professed members, and especially 
the ministry, exalted itself above measure; in au- 
thority, setting itself above God; in will-worship, 
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men; 
in architecture, exceeding all bounds for vain glory. 
" But I have a few things against thee, because thou 



m PREDICTIONS 

hast there them (among the members of the Church) 
that hold the doctrine of Baalam, who taught Balak 
to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Is- 
rael, to eat things sacrificed unto Idols, and to com- 
mit fornication. So hast thou also them (among thy 
ministry) that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, 
which thing I hate." These things were true to the 
letter, as predicted concerning this age of the Church, 
as the records of ecclesiastical history fully prove, 
to say nothing of profane authors. 

4. Thyatira, signifies the city I bruise, the city I 
disturb ; and from it comes the sweet savor of labor, 
and the sacrifice of contrition! This was the age 
of penance, pilgrimages, indulgences, supereroga- 
tion and transubstantiation. This period was from 
1260 to 1680. How true the coincidence of pro- 
phecy and history in regard to this age of the Church. 
It was the age of the Reformation. God bruised the 
Church, by suffering persecution to walk with sword 
and torch in hand throughout all Christendom. He 
disturbed it by raising up Protestantism, by which 
the Church was awakened from her sleep of a thou- 
sand years, during what is called the Dark Ages ; 
and thus the sweet savor of labor, and the sacrifice 
of contrition went up as a precious incense unto the 
Lord. 

Of this age of the Church the Son of God said, 
" I know thy works, and charity, and service, and 
faith, and thy patience, and thy works ; and the last 



OF THE PROPHETS. 67 

to be more than the first." How true this predic- 
tion concerning this Thyatirian age ; for in the first 
part but little had been done for the advancement of 
the Redeemer's kingdom ; but in the latter part was 
the dawn and light of the Reformation experienced, 
and the whole world seemed to be awaking to the im- 
portance of Religion, Philosophy, Arts, Science and 
Literature ; so that indeed the works done in the last 
of this age were emphatically more than the first. 
The divisions of the Church in this age are clearly 
predicted, in the following words : " and all the 
Churches shall know that I am he that searches the 
reins and hearts ; and I will give unto every one of 
you according to your works." The principal thing 
which our Saviour had against the Church in this 
age was, that she suffered that woman Jezebel, " which 
calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my 
servants." No one has the right to teach anything 
contrary to the plain precepts of the Gospel, and 
thus to seduce the servants of God. 

We should not suffer such to teach us, and we 
should labor to turn others away from such a teacher, 
as well as to turn away ourselves. This was the 
great fault of this age of the Church from 1260 to 
1680. 

The promise made to the Thyatirian age of the 
Church was exceeding great and precious : " He that 
overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to 
him will I give power over the nations." How true 



68 PREDICTIONS 

this prediction ; the Reformation was one of the 
" works " of the Lord, and those that have kept this 
work unto the end, down to the present time, have 
power over the nations. Where are the nations that 
would not have Protestantism ? Austria and Spain. 
What has been the sequel ? They have sunk down 
and lost their power, from being the richest and most 
potent of nations, to the feeblest and basest of king- 
doms. It is true of every nation that kept Protest- 
antism, which is Christianity in earnest ; to them 
power has been granted over the nations. And the na- 
tion that keeps righteousness on its side (for all such 
are God's works), shall rule them that do not with a 
rod of iron ; as the vessels of a potter shall they be 
broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father 
" power to break in pieces and destroy all kingdoms 
opposed to my kingdom, and the laws contained in 
my Gospel/' 

Although I am of opinion that the different 
ages of the Church are represented under the alle- 
gory of these cities, I also believe that these cities 
did actually exist, and that these epistles were sent 
unto them for their instruction, correction and en- 
couragement in righteousness. Therefore, for the 
same reason, we shall lay before our readers a more 
systematic and practical exposition of these seven 
epistles. 



OP THE PROPHETS. 69 

THE EPISTLE TO THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS-. 

[V. 1. Unto the Angel of the Church of Ephe- 
sus] — Almost everything mentioned in thi3 book is 
represented as being performed by angels, whether 
it be the destruction of Satan's power, or the estab- 
lishment of Immanuel's kingdom. The special agency 
of angels and demons was incorporated into- the Jew- 
ish popular creed, and everything in their peculiar 
dispensation, as well as of the whole mundane system, 
is represented in the sacred writings as being per- 
formed, or effected through the invisible power of 
such existences. Even our Lord Jesus Christ him- 
self represents angels as the secondary cause of the 
overthrow of whatever is wrong, and the establish- 
ment of whatever is right, throughout his everlasting 
dominions. By angel, in this passage, we are to 
understand the messenger, agent, or person called 
and sent of God, to preside over this Church ; and to 
him the Epistle is directed, not to delineate his own 
character, but the character and conduct of the 
Church under his superintendence. This angel or 
messenger of the Church at Ephesus, we are in- 
formed in ecclesiastical history, was Timothy, the 
bishop at this time ; and the same to whom St. Paul 
addressed two of his Epistles, the more fully to in- 
struct his son, as he calls him, in the doctrines 
and practices of the Church of God. In these 
Epistles, Christ addresses himself to the seven 
Churches in Asia, and through them to the Church in 



70 PREDICTIONS 

all nations, times, and conditions, under the authority 
of his seven attributes, -which are called the " Seven 
Spirits of God." He accuses them of seven sins, 
and announces seven exceedingly great and precious 
promises to all who repent and overcome their sins, 
and continue faithful until death. He addresses the 
Church at Ephesus under the attribute of universal 
sovereignty. Holding universal dominion among the 
stars of light, and walking familiarly, as with Adam 
in Eden, amidst the seven golden candlesticks, up- 
holding, directing, and enlightening all by the word 
of his power. He accuses some of the members of 
this Church with the sin of apostacy — how like Adam 
have been all his children, to think of hiding them- 
selves and escaping the notice of such a sovereign ! 
But to all who repent and overcome their sins, he 
promises to restore them, not merely to an earthly 
paradise, but to the paradise of God. 

" Will you go to that land, -where your friends wait to greet 

you? 
There's a beautiful band joined with us to entreat you; 
They are waiting above, waiting happy to hail you, 
In those regions of love where no ill can assail you." 

[Write] — Let it be written in letters of living 
light, that Jesus Christ is the supreme head, the 
universal bishop, and chief Shepherd of all the 
Churches or congregations of his people throughout 
the whole world ! 

[Y. 2. I know thy works] — It is clearly intimated 



OF THE PROPHETS. 71 

to us, and is worthy of our attention, that our heav- 
enly Master is more intent to let us know that he is 
looking to the good we do rather than the evil ; and 
from this we may learn a lesson, that, if we would 
reform such as have foully fallen, or are not making 
such advancement in the heavenly journey as they 
ought, imitate the Master, and point out whatever 
good remains, and encourage them to renew the 
heavenly race. 

" The fallen or backsliding, who have any tender- 
ness of conscience left, are easily discouraged, and 
are apt to think there is no seed left from which any 
harvest can be reasonably expected. Let them be 
told that there is a seed of godliness remaining, and 
that it requires only watching and strengthening the 
things which remain, by prompt application to God 
in the name of Christ, in order to bring them back 
to the full enjoyment of all they have lost, and to ex- 
perience that they are fully renewed in the spirit of 
their mind. Ministers continually harping on, 'Ye 
are dead, ye are dead I there is little or no Chris- 
tianity among you ! ' are a contagion in a Church, 
and spread desolation and death wherever they go. 
Is it not easy to say in such cases, ye have lost 
ground ; but ye have not lost all your ground ; ye 
might have been much farther advanced ; but through 
mercy ye are still in the way. The Spirit of God is 
grieved with you ; but it is evident he has not for- 
saken you. Ye have not walked in the light as ye 



72 PREDICTIONS 

should, but your candlestick is not removed, and 
your light still shines. Ye have not much zeal, but 
ye have a little. God still strives with you, still loves 
you, still waits to be gracious to you ; take courage, 
set out after him ; come to Christ just as you are — 
believe, love, obey, and you shall soon find days more 
blessed than you have ever yet experienced." And 
thus it is we, as ministers of the Gospel, obey the 
divine injunction, " Comfort ye, comfort ye my peo- 
ple." 

[Thy labor] — Toil of body and anxiety of mind, to 
advance my kingdom ; and I will not forget thy labor 
of love, but ye shall receive your reward at my ap- 
pearing and kingdom. 

[Thy patience] — It implies knowledge, wisdom, 
faith, hope, and love — in a word, all the cardinal vir- 
tues. "To patient faith the prize is sure, and all 
that to the end endure the cross, shall wear the crown 
of eternal life." 

[And how thou canst not bear them which are 
evil] — Possessed of a perverse temper or conduct, by 
which the peace and good order of society is molested, 
and the cause of Christ reproached. 

[Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles] 
— All the writings of the New Testament, if we ex- 
cept the Epistle of St. Jucle, were written by seven 
apostles: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, and 
James; and Paul, as one "born out of due time/' 
But all these had seen Christ, and were called and 



OF THE PROPHETS. 73 

sent forth, as the word means, by Christ personally ; 
and no other persons, but those sent out by Christ, 
have the honor of an apostle ; nor have the writings 
of any, however eminent, ever been received by true 
Christians, or quoted as infallible on the subject of 
Christian doctrines or duties. It is easy to perceive 
into what confusion and ruinous errors the opposite 
theory and practice must necessarily involve those 
who admit the teachings of every eminent man as 
of apostolical authority. 

[V. 3. And hast borne and hast patience] — The 
reproach of those false apostles, deceitful workers, 
who brought anguish of heart upon all the true friends 
of Christ by their false doctrines and practices. 
These things tried the patience of those good Chris- 
tians from day to day, and, like Lot, their righteous 
souls were vexed from day to day with the filthy con- 
duct of those who claimed to be apostles. But God 
comforts his people with the assurance, that none of 
the good they have done, or evil they have suffered 
for his sake, shall ever be forgotten. 

[And for my name's sake hast labored] — To try 
to reclaim those apostates, and recover them out of 
the snare of the devil, by whom they were constantly 
led captive. It is for the honor of the government 
and kingdom, that every loyal subject of Prince Im- 
manuel labors; and all such servants shall find, that, 
according to their day, so shall their strength be; 



74 PREDICTIONS 

they shall -walk in his ways and not be weary ; they 
shall run and not faint. 

[Y. 4. Thou hast left thy first love]— This is 
what the Bridegroom complains of when speaking to 
the members of this Church, the Bride, because they 
did not retain that ardent affection for the kingdom 
of heaven as in the days of their espousals, when 
they were first brought to a knowledge of the truth, 
and justified by faith in Christ, and received into his 
banqueting house, where his banner over them was 
love. 

[V. 5. Remember, therefore, from whence thou 
art fallen] — Call to mind the former days, wherein 
ye had so great a conflict for my name's sake, and 
endured so great a fight of affliction with those who 
were the enemies of my kingdom. You were then 
my ardent friends ! You loved me with a pure love, 
fervently ! You were willing to endure hardness, as 
good soldiers, for my sake ! Consider the happiness, 
love, peace, and joy you possessed when you received 
the evidence of the remission of your sins : your 
willingness to give up yourself entirely to my service, 
your cheerful self-denial, your fervor in private 
prayer, your disregard of worldly glory, your de- 
tachment from the world, your tenderness of con- 
science, and your heavenly-mindedness. 0, remem- 
ber all these, and consider if it is with thee, as in 
former days : if not, thou hast left thy first love, and 
fallen from thy former steadfastness. 0, remember 



OF THE PROPHETS. 75 

what a loss thou hast sustained; for so the term in 
the original is frequently rendered by the best Greek 
writers. 

[Repent, and do thy first work] — You have reason 
to be deeply humbled before God, the giver of every 
good and perfect gift, for being so careless in guard- 
ing the heavenly treasure which is contained in 
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power 
may be of God, and not of us ! But do not be dis- 
couraged : draw nigh to God again, and he will draw 
nigh to thee. This is the way thou didst thy first 
works of faith, hope, and love. Again ask, and tho-u 
shalt again receive of the riches of his grace; and 
thou shalt again have the evidence of thy acceptance, 
through Christ the Beloved. 

[Or else I will come unto thee quickly] — And my 
displeasure against thee shall be known, if through 
the hardness and impenitence of thy heart, thou still 
goest on to heap up wrath against the day of wrath, 
when my anger shall be revealed from heaven against 
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who 
hold the truth in unrighteousness. 

[And remove thy candlestick out of his place] — 
Each member of the Church is a candlestick, to re- 
ceive the candle of the Lord, the light of his holy 
Spirit ; and it is the duty of each one so to live, as 
to keep himself in position, and condition, that he 
may let his light so shine that others may see his 
good works, his exemplary conduct; that they may 



76 PREDICTIONS 

also glorify God. But if any refuse to obey the 
divine mandate, they shall be destroyed suddenly, 
and that without remedy, as a candle is instantly ex- 
tinguished, and shall be driven into outer darkness, 
where there is weeping, and wailing, and endless 
sorrow. Reader, if thou hast fallen, repent — the 
voice of mercy calls — repent. 

[V. 6. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the 
deeds of the Nicolaitans] — It is as much to the credit 
of every friend of Christ to hate that which is evil, 
as to love that which is good. The deeds of the 
Nicolaitans, an early sect of heretics, the disciples 
of one Nicolas, who taught a community of wives, 
and that adultery, and fornication, and eating things 
strangled, or offered to idols, were not only very 
trivial affairs, but were even lawful! And they 
added blasphemy to their impiety, by imputing to 
God the cause of their wickedness, and making him 
the author of all their impurities. Mormonism is but 
a revival of the doctrine and the deeds, in many re- 
spects, of the Nicolaitans. 

[V. 7. He that hath an ear] — God never requires 
more of man than he gives ability to perform. If he 
asks him to hear, he first gives him the ability, then 
requires that man use that ability, and thus co-ope- 
rate with his Maker, by using the means his grace 
has freely given. Let every soul of man, then, at- 
tend to what the Spirit says to the Churches. And 
if any have but one ear, one talent, let him be the 



OF THE PROPHETS. 77 

more attentive, lest lie let the wholesome instructions 
of this and the following Epistles escape his notice; 
for these contain the great sum of Gospel doctrine 
and duty, and are the last letters we have ever re- 
ceived from our long-absent friend and elder brother. 
Let us heed them, so that we may be accounted 
worthy to enter the paradise of God, and eat the 
immortalizing fruits of the tree of life, and live for- 
ever. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE CHURCH AT SMYRNA. 

[V. 8. Unto the angel of the Church in Smyrna 
write] — The angel or minister of this Church is sup- 
posed to have been the devoted Polycarp, who suf- 
fered martyrdom for the cause of his heavenly Mas- 
ter. These things are written, not merely for the 
sake of the Smyrnian Church, but for our sakes also, 
that we may take heed unto our ways, according to 
the written word. 

[These things sayeth the First and the Last] — 
Christ addresses this Church under the attribute of 
his eternity of being ; accuses them of the sin of in- 
sincerity; and gives promises to all who repent of 
their sins, and live faithful to the end, that they shall 
be fellow-heirs with him, and have eternal dominion 
over death. 

[Which was dead] — For the redemption of the 
world; for by the grace of God, he tasted death for 
every man, so that whosoever believeth upon him 
shall not perish, but have eternal life. 



78 PREDICTIONS 

[And is alive] — As our High Priest to atone for 
us ; our unerring Prophet to teach us by his word 
and spirit ; and our King to rule us ; whose kingdom 
is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion shall 
have no end. 

[I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty] 
— As he had written to the Ephesian Church, assur- 
ing them that he had observed all their works of love 
for his sake; all the tribulation, heart-felt sorrow, 
which they had endured, and all the poverty they had 
suffered in times of persecution, by confiscation of 
their worldly substance, for no other cause than their 
attachment to the Gospel. So he assures the Smyr- 
nian Church that their ivories, sorrows and sufferings 
are not forgotten before God; but in the time of the 
restitution of all things, they shall be richly re- 
warded. Therefore, thou art rich in prospect, though 
poor at present; for thou art rich in faith and good 
works, and an heir of my heavenly kingdom. 

[The blasphemy of them which say they are Jews] 
— These persons spoke contemptuously of Christ and 
his holy, self-denying religion, and declared the su- 
periority of their system of worship to that of Chris- 
tianity, which was everywhere spoken against, by 
Jews as well as pagans ; but these had no genuine 
religion, and, therefore, they served Satan rather than 
God ; having merely a form of godliness or religious 
worship, and rested in forms, modes, and ceremonies, 
while they denied the power of the Holy Spirit to 



OF THE PROPHETS. 79 

renew and purify the heart and conscience of the 
penitent believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. They 
applied the sacred name of religion to their ceremo- 
nial formality, and were, therefore, guilty of blas- 
phemy and falsehood, and justly deserved the appel- 
lation, (as do all others who hold similar views,) •'• the 
synagogue of Satan" — the synagogue of deception 
and destruction. From such we are enjoined to turn 
away, as from some loathsome, hateful, ruinous thing ; 
lest we be partakers of their evil deeds and doctrines, 
and suffer in their final overthrow; for God shall 
overthrow them, as he did Sodom. 

[V. 10. Fear none of those things which thou 
shalt suffer] — Fear not them that kill the body, and 
have no more that they can do, as they have no 
power over the soul; but I will forewarn you whom 
you shall fear. Fear him who has all power in 
heaven, and earth, and hell, and over both soul and 
body, and can cast both into everlasting torment. 
The history of the Church informs us that the pious 
Polycarp was bishop of this Church. He suffered 
much for the cause of Christ, and was at last burnt 
alive, at Smyrna, about A. D. 166. For a more 
complete account of his martyrdom, the reader is 
referred to Fox's Book of Martyrs. We are there 
informed that the Jews were particularly active in 
procuring his martyrdom, and brought the fire, and 
fetters, and faggots by which he was consumed to 
ashes. Such persons, whether Jews, Pagans, Papists, 



80 PREDICTIONS. 

or so-called Protestants, must, indeed, have been of 
the synagogue of Satan, and all who now possess a 
similar spirit, are the servants of Satan. 

[Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into 
prison that you may be tried] — The devil is still the 
grand adversary of all good ; he is the prince of the 
power of the air, the prince of all wrong political 
powers or rulers, and has actuated them, and still 
actuates them to do evil. He rules in the hearts of 
all the children of disobedience. Air means all peo- 
ple; hence he is the prince of the political powers of 
the air. All bad political governments are an inva- 
sion of divine right, or prerogative, and originated 
through the instigation of Satan, in the rebellion 
against the divine government, at Babel or Baby- 
lon, and hence such power is called Babylon, and 
must finally be overthrown to give place to the 
reign of Righteousness, or the Millennial kingdom. 

[And ye shall have tribulation ten days] — The ten 
days here may be considered prophetic days, each 
day equal to a year ; and may signify ten years of 
persecution in which they should be called to endure 
tribulation, heartfelt sorrow of mind and affliction of 
body. It may also mean the frequency of the per- 
secutions which were to come upon them, as Jacob, 
Job, and others use the term ten times, to denote fre- 
quency. 

I am inclined to think that, as no prophecy is of 
private or limited interpretation, that this has a 



OF THE PROPHETS. 81 

much wider range and application. "We shall see in 
the progress of this work, in our investigations, that 
a prophetic time, which is a year of years, or three 
hundred and sixty years, is called a day; or, three 
times and a half are called three days and a half, 
which is equal to 1260 years. So in this passage, 
I think a day means, at least, a half time, or 180 
years; then ten days would equal 10 times 180 or 
1800 years of tribulation to be endured by the 
Church in general. Now, if we add the 100' years 
of the Christian era already past to 1800, we have 
the year A. D. 1900. By the time this period ar- 
rives, I apprehend the Church will have no more trib- 
idation from her heartless enemy, the man of sin — 
bad political governments. 

[Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee 
a crown of life] — Be faithful in adhering to all the 
doctrines, and practicing the duties of the Gospel un- 
to death, and although thou art called to suffer as a 
martyr, I will give thee eternal life, and an unfading 
crown of glory. It is related of the pious Polycarp, 
that when brought before the court, and commanded 
to abjure and blaspheme Christ, he solemnly an- 
swered: " Eighty and six years have I served him, 
and he never did me wrong ; how, then, can I blas- 
pheme my king, who hath saved me !" He was then 
condemned to the flames, and tortured, not accepting 
deliverance, that he might obtain a better resurrec- 
tion than those who deny their Lord and Master; for 



82 PREDICTIONS 

thoee who suffer with him here shall also reign with 
him, being accounted worthy of a part in the first 
resurrection, and on all such the second death shall 
have no power. 

[V. 11. He that, overcometh shall not be hurt of 
the second death] — The first death separates a man 
from all the happiness, privileges, and immunities 
of this life. But the second death separates all 
who have to endure it, from all the happy compan- 
ions, glorious privileges, and eternal immunities of 
endless life in the world to come. But he that by 
the grace of Grod overcomes his sins, and brings all 
his members into captivity and obedience unto the 
law of Christ, shall not be hurt by such a death, or 
separation from God and his glorious and eternal 
kingdom. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE CHURCH AT PERGAMOS. 

[V. 12. To the angel of the Church in Pergamos 
write]— This Church is addressed by our Lord, un- 
der the attribute of omnipotence, accused of the sin of 
covetousness ; and promise is given to all who repent 
and overcome their sins, that they shall have the hid- 
den manna, emblem of eternal riches. 

[These things, saith he, which hath the sharp 
sword with two edges] — " The sword of the spirit, 
which is the word of Grod, cuts every way : It con- 
vinces of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment j 
pierces between the joints and marrow, divides be- 
tween the soul and spirit, dissects the whole mind, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 83 

and exhibits a regular anatomy of the soul ! It not 
only reproves and exposes sin, but it slays the un- 
godly, pointing out and determining the punishment 
they shall endure. Jesus has the sword with two 
edges, emblem of all power and authority in this life, 
and the life to come, because he is the Saviour of 
sinners, and the judge of the quick and the dead." — 
Br. A. Clarke. 

[V. 18. I know thy works, and where thou dwell- 
est] — All things are open before him with whom we 
have to do — our works, and ways, and habitations ; 
for known unto God are all his works in all places 
of his dominion. I know how difficult it is for thee 
to live a Christian life amidst such surroundings; for 
here is Satan's seat of learning ; for the Pergamenian 
library contained over 200,000 volumes of satanic 
literature. Here king Satan had his throne and 
dwelling-place, and here he reigns and is universally 
obeyed; for the people have become so familiar with 
the devices and doctrines of the devil, that it be- 
comes fashionable to serve Satan ! It was a maxim 
among the Jews, that where the law of God was not 
studied, there Satan dwelt, but was compelled to 
leave the place where a synagogue, or academy, was 
established. Although this may be merely a tradi- 
tion, yet there is a great truth underlaying the thought; 
for it is the experience of mankind, that where the 
law of'God is most heeded, the people are the most 



84 PREDICTIONS 

happy; and where it is the least studied, they are 
the most miserable. 

[Thou holclest fast my name] — However unfash- 
ionable or unpopular my name or government is 
among the citizens of Pergamos, you have chosen to 
live according to its self-denying doctrines, and have 
not been ashamed amidst its vain philosophy, wealth, 
and worldliness to confess publicly, as did Antipas, 
my faithful martyr, that you are resolved to live and 
die Christians. 

[And hast not denied my faith] — You have not 
neglected or rejected the doctrines, duties, precepts, 
promises, and prophecies contained in the writings 
of my prophets and apostles, which contain the sys- 
tem of my faith, the faith once delivered to the saints, 
holy men who wrote as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost, that all men might know and do the will 
of God on earth, as angels do in heaven. Christ is 
the author of the system of faith set forth in the holy 
Scriptures, as well as the author of the power to be- 
lieve and obey it. 

[Antipas was my faithful martyr] — Here is the 
most indubitable evidence that Antipas was faithful 
unto death; and he is hereby held up to this Church 
who were well and personally acquainted with him, 
as an example which they should imitate, as he was 
tempted in all points as they were, and had to con- 
tend with the samebesetments. There is a work ex- 
tant, entitled The Acts of Antipas, which informs us 



OF THE PROPHETS. 85 

that he was bishop of Pergamos, and that he suffered 
martyrdom, by being inclosed and burned to death 
in a brazen bull ! However this may be, kind reader? 
like Antipas, we must be faithful to our heavenly 
Master, whether called to pass through flood or fire ! 
The doctrine of Balaam, that whoredom and idolatry 
were very innocent things, and were matters of in- 
difference, was very much like the doctrine of the 
Nicolaitans. 

Any of you who are guilty of such practices, re- 
pent, or I will come unto thee suddenly, as the flash- 
ing fire from the tempest-driven cloud, and will fight 
against thee with the sword of my mouth ! 

[V. 17. To him that overcometh will I give to 
eat of the hidden manna] — This is as if Christ had 
said, " It has been a constant tradition of the Jews 
that the ark of the covenant, the two tables of stone, 
Aaron's rod which budded, the holy anointing oil, 
and the pot of manna, were all hidden by King 
Josiah, when Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans ; 
and that these shall all be restored in the d'ays of 
the Messiah ! But I am the true Messiah, the an- 
nointed of God, the Saviour of the world : therefore, 
whosoever heareth and heedeth what the Spirit saith 
to the Churches, shall enjoy all the riches, and 
power, and wisdom, and blessing in their highest 
perfection which were foreshadowed by these sacred 
symbols !" 

[I will give him a white stone] — The heart of the 



86 PREDICTIONS 

unregenerate is represented as corrupt, deceitful, 
stony, foolish, and dark or black ; but he that conies 
to Christ, shall have his old, hard, and dark heart 
taken away ; or, in other words, renewed. So in the 
language of David, God, for Christ's sake, shall 
" create in him a clean heart, and renew within him 
a right spirit." It shall no longer be a black stone, 
but a white stone — emblem of a pure, wise, and happy 
heart. 

[And in the stone a new name written] — The term 
name is often used for law or government ; while the 
children of wrath, and servants of sin, the law of sin 
is written, or contained in the heart. But when the 
heart is renewed, a new name or law is written on 
the heart, not with ink, but with the spirit of the 
living God ; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables 
of the heart. Now, the Lord is that Spirit, which 
does this work, and gives us pardon, and peace, and 
joy in the Holy Ghost, which is a witness to us of 
our adoption and acceptance ; for the Spirit itself 
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the chil- 
dren of God. 

THE EPISTLE TO THE CHURCH AT THYATIRA. 

[V. 18. These things sayeth the Son of God] — 
Who addresses this Church under the attribute of 
omniscience ; accuses them of the sin of idolatry ; and 
promises to all who repent, and conquer, and live 
faithful throughout the present life : " I will give 



OF THE PROPHETS. 87 

him the morning star" — emblem of heavenly light, 
purity, peace, and happiness. 

[V. 19. I know thy works] — For my sake, in ex- 
tending a knowledge of the Gospel, and establishing 
my kingdom in the world ; and charity or love for 
all the brethren in particular, and for poor sinners 
in general; and service for the poor, and fatherless, 
and afflicted, by helping all, and especially the house- 
hold of the faithful ; and faith in all my promises ; 
and you have given evidence of the genuineness of 
your faith by your works ; and thy patience, amidst 
thy labors and works for me and mine ; and especial- 
ly thy patience toward thy enemies ; and thy works 
for thy enemies, doing good for evil, feeding such 
when hungry, giving them to drink when thirsty, 
and clothing and protecting them when destitute and 
afflicted. 

[And the last to be more than the first] — You have 
given evidence that you are growing in grace, and 
abounding more and more in good works ; but while 
you are living pure and praiseworthy, beware, lest 
by some unguarded duty, you become partaker of 
other men's sins ! 

[V. 20. That woman Jezebel] — Whoever this 
woman was, her character seems to have been like 
that of ancient Jezebel, the wife of Ahab. Almost 
all the ancient versions read: Thy wife Jezebel, 
and this reading is fully indorsed by Griesbach. The 
angel, messenger, or minister of this Church was in 



88 PREDICTIONS . 

all probability the husband of this pretended proph- 
etess, and seducer of God's servants ; and good as 
he was, and he certainly was of an excellent charac- 
ter, yet he was partaker of the sin of others, by be- 
ing too lenient. He disobeyed the command of 
Christ, "If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off!" 
It appears his wife was acting very wickedly, and he 
did not restrain her; and this is what Christ had 
against him. 

[Y. 21. And I gave her space to repent] — In 
every dispensation God has given men warning, and 
space for repentance, before he would bring upon 
them the impending evil. We may instance the 
Antediluvians, the Sodomites, the Ninevites, the Is- 
raelites, the Babylonians, and especially Ahab and 
Jezebel, in the days of the prophet Elijah. (See 1 
Kings, xxi.) But under the Christian dispensation, 
the long-suffering of God is much more abundant ; 
and hence this Jezebel has ample space for repent- 
ance. 

[V. 22. Behold, I will cast her into a bed]— The 
bed is the emblem of rest of body and peace of 
mind, and is the means of physical and mental re- 
freshment, when used according to the requirements 
of nature and the dictates of common sense. But a 
bed is used in the Scriptures as a symbol of afflic- 
tion, tribulation, and anguish of body and mind. So 
the Son of God declares to this Jezebel, and all 
guilty of the like conduct, that his piercing eyes 



OF THE PROPHETS. 89 

shall discover their wills and affections, and make 
known their pernicious ways to all the Churches; 
for I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts, 
and I will give unto every one of you according to 
your works ; and that which was the place and in- 
strument of your adulterous and idolatrous pleasures 
shall be the source of your greatest torment ; and 
the children of your adultery, which became the ob- 
jects of your idolatry, because you love and serve 
them more than your Creator, I will kill with a pain- 
ful, lingering death in your beds of guilt, so that 
your bed shall become a bed of affliction, sorrow and 
anguish ! And, finally, you and yours shall suffer 
the pains of the second death, unless you repent. 
How vain it is for mortal man to try to escape the 
all-discerning knowledge of him who hath his eyes 
like unto a flame of fire, by which every act and ob- 
ject is made manifest, in every time and place, so 
that all things are open and naked before him with 
whom we have to do. 

[V. 24. But unto you I say, and the rest in Thy- 
atira] — This language is evidently addressed to the 
angel or minister of Thyatira, and those of the 
Church who had kept themselves pure from the errors 
in doctrine, and the sinful practices into which Jeze- 
bel and her party had fallen. 

[And have not known the depths of Satan, as they 
speak] — It appears from Church history that this 
Jezebel and her party were holding the doctrines of 



90 PREDICTIONS 

the devil, and yet teaching that it was the highest 
wisdom of heaven. They were evidently a part of 
that sect called Gnostics (wise or knowing), and they 
called their doctrines the depth of God, intimating 
that they held the most profound secrets of divine 
wisdom. Christ, who knows what is in man, and 
needs not that any should instruct him, calls these 
doctrines the depths of Satan ; that is to say, they 
are from beneath, earthly, sensual, devilish, the very 
opposite of wisdom that is from above, which is first 
pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, 
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and 
without hypocrisy. 

[I will put upon you none other burden] — A bur- 
den, in Scriptural language, when used figuratively, 
signifies a severe calamity, a heavy affliction de- 
nounced against a person or people. Example : 
" The Lord laid this burden on Ahab." (2 Kings, 
ix. 25.) Isaiah uses the term often, as the " burden 
of Modb" etc. The absolute sense of the text, I 
understand to be, that it seems good to Christ to lay 
upon them no greater burden than these necessary 
things : " That ye abstain from meats offered to 
idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, 
and from fornication, from which if ye keep your- 
selves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well." The pas- 
sage should not have been divided and punctuated 
as in our translation, but should have retained its 
proper order and connection. " I will put upon you 



OF THE PROPHETS. 91 

none other burden but that which ye have (already 
received from my apostles, by the Holy Ghost); 
hold fast till i come," to reward my servants and 
punish my enemies : therefore hold fast to the doc- 
trines and duties, precepts and promises of my Gos- 
pel, for I will come at the time appointed, and will 
not tarry ; for I am long-suffering, waiting for you 
my disciples to go into all the world, and preach my 
Gospel to all nations ; then will I come and reward 
every man, accordingly as he may have obeyed or 
disobeyed my doctrine. 

[V. 26. And he that overcometh] — The tvorld, 
with all its vain philosophy and idolatry, and the 
fleshy with all its covetous sensuality, desiring that 
which it does not need, or which it can not rightfully 
possess ; and the devil, with all his subtlety in re- 
fining upon the Gospel, by so writing fact and fic- 
tion, truth and error, as to deceive and destroy the 
souls of men, by inducing them to disobey God, as 
he did our first parents. 

[And keepeth my works unto the end] — A man 
must show the genuineness of his faith by the good- 
ness of his works ; for they sustain the relation of 
cause and effect to each other : faith is as invisible 
as the air ; works are as visible as the effects of the 
air : a genuine faith is the soul of good works ; and 
as the body is dead and useless without the soul, so 
faith without good works is dead. That is, a faith 
that does not make a good and useful Christian of a 



92 PKEDICTIONS 

man, is worth nothing, for by their fruits ye shall 
know them. Faith and works are inseparably con- 
nected with the perfection of Christian character in 
our state of moral probation. 

[To him will I give power over the nations] — All 
political power is fast passing into the hands of 
Christians. Indeed, Christians now hold the balance 
of political power in the whole world. The time 
will come when the saints shall possess the kingdom, 
and possess it forever. The Gospel will prove to be 
the power of God, containing his own divine system 
of laws, and will overthrow all other laws and re- 
ligions, and be everywhere established and implicitly 
obeyed. 

[And he shall rule them with a rod of iron] — Thy 
throne, God, is forever and ever ; a scepter of 
righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Right- 
eousness exalts a nation ; for the work of righteous- 
ness is peace, and the effect of righteousness is 
quietness and assurance forever. Therefore he, the 
nation, which lives in righteousness, peace and quiet- 
ness, shall rule among the nations as with an iron 
scepter : he shall have every thing his own way ; for 
Eight is finally to rule, and all kingdoms and govern- 
ments must give place before him ; as the vessels of 
a potter shall they be broken to pieces, utterly and 
irrevocably ruined and overthrown : and the Millen- 
nial kingdom shall be universally established, even 



OF THE PROPHETS. 93 

as I received of my Father, power, dominion and 
glory. 

[V. 28. And I will give him the morning star] — 
I will give him, the nation which fears God, and 
works righteousness, the glory of the morning star. 
It is well known that the sun, moon and stars are 
emblems, in prophetic language, of empires, king- 
doms and states. And as the morning star is that 
which immediately precedes the rising of the sun, so 
the emblem is probably to be understood of an em- 
pire, which is to be the last and best political gov- 
ernment on earth, and shall usher in and be dis- 
solved in the light of the Millennial kingdom of 
Christ. True religion is constantly increasing, and 
its influence being diffused among the nations, and, 
like the sun, is shining more and more unto the per- 
fect day. 

It is worthy of our careful attention that, accord- 
ing to my interpretation of the prophetic predictions, 
the United States of America is that government or 
empire, as it is the last foretold to exist until Christ 
sets up his Millennial kingdom. 
9 



94 PREDICTIONS 



CHAPTER in. 

This chapter begins with the Epistle to the Church 
in Sardis ; and the angel or minister of this Church, 
and through him its members, are reproved, ex- 
horted to repent, and threatened, if they do not re- 
pent, " I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt 
not know what hour I will come upon thee." 

5. Sardis signifies the prince of joy ; the song of 
joy ; it also signifies a crucible. This age of the 
Church includes the time from A. D. 1680 to 2100. 
This is the age in which we are living, and our fa- 
thers before us for more than 180 years. We are, 
then, in the midst of this age. The Prince of Joy has 
reigned in this age, and it has exceeded all the ages 
before it for excellent poets, spiritual songs, inspiring 
hymns and joyful Church melody. 

But the Saviour has a grave charge against this 
age. " I know thy works," and in this age they 
have been more abundant than in any previous age, 
and on this account "thou hast a name that thou 
livest," because of thy missions, bible societies, and 
many benevolent institutions : " but thou art dead" 
to me in all this, and alive to the world and thine 
own selfish interests ; for ye are not so much con- 
cerned about the advancement of my Gospel king- 
dom in the world as thine own denomination, called 



OF THE PKOPHETS. 95 

" our Church." Remember, therefore, how thou hast 
received and heard in the Gospel " that whether ye 
eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory 
of God." The number of those that thus live are 
but few in this age of the Church ; therefore the ful- 
fillment of the prediction is true. " Thou hast a 
few names even in Sardis which have not defiled 
their garments, and they shall walk with me in 
white, for they are worthy." This is the joyful city 
— the city of the Prince of Joy. But this is also 
the city of the Crucible — an age that tries men's 
souls and bodies, by alluring temptations or cruel 
wars. The Redeemer gives command, suitable to 
all the emergencies and vicissitudes of this age, in 
these words, to this Church: " Be watchful, and 
strengthen the things which remain, that are ready 
to die : for I have not found thy works perfect before 
God." How true this prediction concerning the 
present age ! We called our nation a free nation, 
while we held millions in abject bondage. We called 
the Church of Christ our Church, and spent millions 
to advance local and denominational interests, where 
we wonli not spend a dollar for advancing the gen- 
eral interests of mankind. Therefore God is calling 
the Churches and the nations to pass through the 
crucible, and but " a few names in Sardis" will come 
out approved. But, thank God, " a few names even 
in Sardis" will come out as the gold of God, all the 
better and brighter for the refining. To those who 



96 PREDICTIONS 

may consider our views of the Sardian age of the 
Church fanciful, we will submit for their considera- 
tion our 'practical annotations : 

THE EPISTLE TO THE CHURCH IN SARDIS. 

[V. 1. Christ addresses this Church under the 
attribute of Omnipresence : " These things sayeth he 
that hath the seven Spirits of God ;" accuses them of 
the sin of dissimulation ; for I know thy ivories, that 
thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead'] — 
You have the form, the name, and government, but 
you have not the power, the soul, the life ; for by 
your fruits, your works, ye are known. However, 
Christ promises to him that overcomes eternal 
friendship and protection in the kingdom of God : 
for he that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in 
white raiment, and 1 will not blot out his name out 
of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name be- 
fore my father and before his angels. What a 
glorious promise ! 

[Y. 2. Be watchful, and strengthen the things 
which remain, that are ready to die] — The good seed 
of the kingdom, the word of God, which was sown 
in your hearts, has been plucked up ; some, at 
least, by the devil ; some has withered on stony 
ground ; some has been choked among thorns, cares 
or pleasures of this life : be watchful, be sober, be 
vigilant, for your adversary, the devil, seeks to de- 
stroy all. Pray always that the rich dews of grace 



OF THE PROPHETS. 97 

may come over you in many a gentle shower, to 
strengthen the things which remain, that there may 
be the blade, and the stock, and the ear, and the full 
corn in the ear, that thy works, thy fruits, may be 
perfect, filled up, and acceptable before God, as the 
full-eared corn at harvest-time is pleasing to the 
patient husbandman ! 

[V. 3. Remember, therefore, how thou hast re- 
ceived] — The grace of God, the Gospel of your sal- 
vation ; and come, as at the first, relying entirely 
on the mercy of God, through the merits of Christ, 
for redemption, even the forgiveness of all your 
sins, and acceptance, and the witness of the Holy 
Spirit. 

[And heard] — What exceeding great and precious 
promises were made known to you in the beginning 
of the Gospel messagje, and how they comprehended 
the most glorious and eternal blessings. 

[Hold fast] — These promises steadfast unto the 
end, and never cast away your confidence, which 
hath so great a recompense of reward. 

[And repent] — Of whatever wrong you have done, 
or duty you have left undone, and return and come 
unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon you, 
and abundantly pardon all your sins. 

[If, therefore, thou shalt not watch] — And main- 
tain thy position, and retain the blessings thou hast 
received, and regain the favor thou has lost. 

[I will come upon thee as a thief] — And take 



yo PREDICTIONS 

away all that" I gave thee : for what hast thou that 
thou didst not receive ? I will have mine own ; and 
if thou wilt not improve the talents, gifts, graces, 
and privileges which I have graciously bestowed 
upon thee, I will take them away, as a thief, and 
thou shalt not know what I have done. " I will 
come upon thee ;" I shall treat you as incorrigible 
enemies who have often been reproved, destroy you 
suddenly and unexpectedly, as a thief, and there 
shall be no remedy ; for I will laugh at your calam- 
ity, and mock when your fear cometh. 

[V. 4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis 
which have not defiled their garments] — This lan- 
guage appears to be addressed especially to the 
angel or minister of Sardis. A few names or per- 
sons, belonging to the Church at Sardis, had kept 
themselves pure from the pollutions of erroneous 
doctrines and corrupt practices which were incul- 
cated and indulged among them, as among the other 
Churches in Asia. It has been the custom of the 
Church, in all ages, when a person was baptized and 
admitted into it, by this visible sign and seal, to en- 
roll their names in the church book, or record, kept 
for this purpose ; and hence names are put here for 
the people themselves. 

[They shall walk with me in white] — They shall 
be my familiar companions, and shall enjoy all the 
glory and blessings of my pure and heavenly king- 
dom ; for they have given evidence they are worthy 



OF THE PROPHETS. 99 

of such a glorious inheritance. No mortal has ever 
been so favorably surrounded as not to be tempted 
to sin. Adam, amidst the beauties a,nd pleasures of 
Paradise, disobeyed the divine command, and brought 
ruin upon himself and his race ; while, on the other 
hand, none have ever been so unfavorably surrounded 
but that they have proved faithful in the belief and 
practice of the Gospel. Perhaps Antipas, of Perga- 
mos, was encompassed by as ungodly and Sodomitish 
and malignant a set of men as ever lived ; yet Christ 
says of him, " He was my faithful martyr," and con- 
sequently faithful unto death. 

[V. 5. I will not blot out his name out of the 
Book of Life] — It was the custom of the Jews, as 
well as of the Greeks and Romans, to have a Book 
for the purpose of registering the names of the peo- 
ple belonging to their commonwealth. This book 
contained the names of all living citizens, and hence 
may properly be called the " Book of the Living," 
or " Book of Life." But from this book the names 
of all the dead were carefully erased, expunged, or 
blotted out. Here may also be an allusion to the 
practice of registering the names of all who were 
admitted into the visible church by water baptism ; 
and hence the custom of baptismal registers in 
churches. They are properly books of life, as they 
contain the names of all who have become fellow- 
citizens with the saints, and are of the household of 
faith. Or there may be an allusion to the white rai- 



100 PREDICTIONS 

merit worn by the priests ; and the erasing or blotting 
out of the names of any from the priestly register 
who had grievously sinned, or were suffering some 
legal disability, or were not found of the lineage of 
Aaron. Such were dismantled of their white rai- 
ment, and sent away degraded, as univorthy of the 
holy place and office of the priesthood. But those 
who were found worthy, their names were not blotted 
out of the Book of Life. So Christ assures this 
Church that this shall be the portion of all his people 
who are faithful unto death. 

[V. 6. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the 
Spirit saith to the Churches] — The things which are 
written to these Churches are dictated by the spirit 
of love, wisdom, purity and fidelity, and are worthy 
the attention, not only of the members of this 
Church, but of all the children of men who have 
eyes to see, or an ear -to hear, or sense to perceive. 
It would seem that the term Churches was here used 
by divine foresight, to mock the wisdom of modern 
times, which defines the churches to be but one 
Church, the Church, and that to be an indescribable, 
indefinable, invisible something, which is infallible, 
and can not degenerate or apostatize. However, 
it is evident that all who hold these views are 
fallible, degenerate, and have grievously aposta- 
tized. 

6. Philadelphia signifies the City of Friends and 
Brothers. It is, then, under this similitude or alle- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 101 

gory that the sixth age of the Church is represented 
and its general character foretold. But as this age 
will occupy the time from A. D. 2100 to 2520, we 
can not now tell by human prescience any thing 
about it. But we are not left in the dark, or to our 
own conjectures, for the spirit of prophecy, which 
writes divine history — history before the event comes 
to pass ; that is, before the events come out of the 
dark chaos of futurity, they have been written by 
holy men, who wrote as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost, and therefore their testimony is conclu- 
sive and incontrovertible. The Epistle to this 
Church, and to this age of the Church, is briefly 
comprehended in these words : 

"And to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia 
write : These things saith he that is holy, he that is 
true, he that hath the key of David, he that open- 
eth, and no man shutteth ; and shutteth, and no man 
openeth : 

I know thy works : Behold, I have set before 
thee an open door, and no man can shut it : for thou 
hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and 
hast not denied my name. 

Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of 
Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do 
lie ; behold, I will make them to come and worship 
before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. 

Because thou hast kept the word of my pa- 
tience, I also will keep thee from the hour of tempt- 



102 PREDICTIONS 

ation, which shall come upon all the world, to try 
them that dwell upon the earth. 

Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which 
thou hast, that no man take thy crown. 

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in 
the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out : 
and I will write upon him the name of my God, and 
the name of the city of my God, which is new Jeru- 
salem, which cometh down out of heaven from my 
God : and I tvill ivrite upon him my new name. 

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the 
Spirit saith unto the Churches." 

The promises made to this age of the Church are 
exceeding great and precious. " Behold, I have set 
before thee an open door." Before the City of 
Friends and Brothers a wide and effectual door will 
be opened in all the world, for all manner of useful- 
ness and goodness. And in that age they will not 
suffer the mortification of having the door of useful- 
ness shut, " for no man can shut it." The Church 
will then be united — united, we stand ; being united 
as an army of friends and brothers, she will be in- 
vincible. " Behold, I will make them of the syna- 
gogue of Satan," those false brethren that live in 
that age, "which say they are Jews, and are not, but 
do lie," I will make them acknowledge their hypoc- 
risy, so that men may as clearly discern who are my 
disciples and who are not, as they did on the day of 
Pentecost, when the multitude saw the friends of 



OF THE PROPHETS. 103 

Jesus crowned with flaming fire. Messiah has prom- 
ised to keep this age of the Church " from the hour 
of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, 
to try them that dwell upon the earth." He will 
prevent this hour of temptation from coming in this 
age, as it is reserved for the last age of the Church 
and the world. " Behold, I come quickly," after 
this age passes, even in the next age ; therefore be 
faithful, and I will give thee a crown of life. 
We submit a few practical notes on this epistle. 

EPISTLE TO THE CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA. 

Our Lord addresses himself to this Church under 
the attribute of Truth; accuses some of the members 
of lying; and to all who overcome their sins, he 
promises the eternal honors and enjoyments of the 
city of God. 

[V. 7. These things saith He that is holy] — In 
all his motives, works, and ways. He that is true — 
In all that he has ever said to mankind, in all that he 
says to the Churches, and in all the declarations of 
this Revelation, his veracity is unimpeachable ; for he 
is the fountain of truth, in whom there is no error, 
or darkness, or variableness, or shadow of turning. 
He that hath the key of David — that has the power 
of which David's was the emblem: as David ruled 
over Israel, so Christ is to rule over all the true Is- 
rael of God. 

[He that openeth, and no man shutteth] — He that 
openeth a wide and effectual door for the advance- 



104 PREDICTIONS 

ment of his kingdom in the world, in spite of all op- 
position, and which the united powers of earth and 
hell can not close, for he is the little stone hewn out 
of the mountain, which is to break in pieces and sub- 
due all kingdoms. 

[And he shutteth, and no man openeth] — He re- 
strains, or impedes the power of earthly kingdoms, 
and makes them subserve his purpose, as the scaffold- 
ing to the Temple, till all is complete, and then, in 
the fullness of times, they shall be taken away with 
the rubbish, and no man, or combination of men, or 
devils, can subvert his purpose ; for he is King of 
kings, and Lord of lords. 

[Y. 8. I know thy works] — What thou hast done 
and suffered for the sake of my kingdom. Behold, 
1 have set before thee an open door. Thy way is 
clear, under my grace and providence, to enter the 
very citadel of sin, and then to push on thy conquests 
and take the " man of sin," and all his subjects ; for 
my grace and power is sufficient for the work ; the 
door is open before thee, and no man can shut; it. 
Amen. 

[For thou hast a little strength] — In weakness 
thou art made strong ; for when thou feelest thine 
own feebleness, then it is thou callest upon me for 
help, and I will give thee a power and a wisdom 
which thy enemies can not gainsay or resist ; for ac- 
cording to thy day, whether thou go est through fire 
or water, so shall thy strength be. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 105 

[And hast kept my word] — As the only rule of 
thy faith and practice, and hast not suffered it to be 
corrupted by the reasoning of vain men, or improved 
by false philosophy. 

[And hast not denied my name] — My person, char- 
acter, power and government. Ye have confessed 
that, as to my person, I am of the seed of David ; 
as to my character, that I have demonstrated that I 
am the Son of God — Immanuel; as to my power, 
that I have all power in heaven and earth, that in 
me dwelt and dwells all the fullness of the Godhead 
substantially, and for evermore ; and as to my gov- 
ernment, it shall rule over all, and to it there shall 
be no end. 

[V. 9. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue 
of Satan] — Those who claim to be the Church, the 
true Church, the only Church, and deny salvation to 
all others, and their errors in doctrine, and corrup- 
tions in practice, give evidence that they are not 
the servants of God, but of their father, the devil; 
for his works they do, and by their fruits ye shall 
know them ; and if they claim to be the Church, or 
synagogue, they are of the synagogue of Satan; al- 
though they claim to be Jews, they are not Jews in- 
wardly, whose praise is of God, and not of men. — 
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 
therefore they do lie in setting up their claim to be 
Jews; for they have so corrupted the simplicity 
of the Gospel that they have no longer the form. 



106 PREDICTIONS 

the true doctrines, much, less the spiritual life and 
power of my pure and peaceful religion which is the 
power of God unto present and eternal salvation, to 
all who believe and obey. 

[Behold, I will make them to come, and worship 
before thy feet] — To admit all, and submit to all the 
doctrines of my Gospel, as containing the true prin- 
ciples of universal right, peace, and good- will among 
men, and for my glory I shall so order the affairs of 
men, and direct the events of time, in the course of 
my Providence, that the Jews shall be obliged to seek 
unto Christians for toleration, support, and protec- 
tion, which they shall be obliged to work for in the 
most abject manner on their part, and on yours the 
most honorable. This is now being fulfilled, and 
will be perfectly fulfilled in the Philadelphian age. 

[And to know that I have loved thee] — That I 
love every one who walks in the steps of the faith of 
Abraham, and serves me not merely in word, but in 
deed. And I will make the Jews know that the love 
which was formerly fixed on them, is now removed, 
on account of their unbelief and disobedience, and is 
now bestowed upon you gentiles, because of your 
faith and obedience. 

[V. 10. Because thou hast kept the word of my 
patience] — You have done and suffered patiently the 
things which were required in my word, which 
teaches that I am long-suffering, and that I have left 
you an example of patience, even unto death; so you 



OF THE PROPHETS. 107 

should follow my steps, as ye have, and be patient 
toward all men, if happily they may repent of their 
errors, and come to the acknowledgment of the truth 
and be saved. 

[I will also keep thee] — As you have wonderfully 
and patiently kept my words of precept and promise, 
in the time of tribulation and affliction, I will also 
keep thee ; do wonderful things for thee in delivering 
thee from evil, which shall astonish thine adversaries, 
and greatly rejoice thine own heart. 

[Y. 11. Behold, I come quickly] — To give evi- 
dence to you that I am not slack concerning my 
promise ; and my rewards of consolation will I bring 
for all my faithful friends ; but against my enemies 
I shall sit in judgment, and award them tribulation 
and anguish. 

[Hold that fast which thou hast] — See, it is but a 
little while that you have to labor, and watch, and 
suffer, for my sake ; so if you are faithful, it is but a 
little time till the crown will be yours, and yours 
forever, without the possibility of again losing it. 
The crown is an emblem of the highest honor, wealth, 
and happiness. Why the exhortation to hold that 
fast which thou hast, if there were no possibility of 
letting it go or losing it ? Therefore let us give the 
more earnest heed to the things we have, lest at any 
time we should let them slip, and the inheritance pre- 
pared for us, to be taken possession of by another. 
This is the plain, common-sense teaching of the text. 



108 PREDICTIONS 

[V. 12. A pillar in the temple of my God] — -The 
Church is the Temple of God, built up of living 
stones, individual, living members. Christ is the 
foundation laid in Zion, on which it is built ; and 
his ministers and people are the two pillars, Jachin 
and Boaz, by which it is adorned and supported. 
Jachin, that strengthens or establishes ; Boaz, strength 
or stability ; all receiving their glory, and honor, and 
power, from Christ, the master-builder, who has laid 
the foundation and brought forth the head-stone 
with shoutings, " Grace, grace unto it ! " 

[And he shall go no more out] — For there shall 
be no more liability of forfeiting his citizenship, or 
need of his going out to seek for comfort or pleasure, 
for himself or others ; for the city of God contains, 
to the utmost perfection, all that can be provided for 
its glorious and immortal inhabitants. 

[I will write upon him the name of my God] — As 
the ancient Jewish priest had the name of Jehovah 
written upon him, to show that he was exclusively 
the Lord's, so the Christian shall bear the name, and 
be entirely consecrated, " Holiness to the Lord," as 
priests of his heavenly kingdom. 

[And the name of the city of my God] — As the 
high priest had on his breastplate the names of the 
twelve tribes engraved, and these constituted the city 
(religious organization), or Church of God, Christ 
here promises, that in place of the twelve patriarchs, 
the names of the twelve apostles, representing the 



OF THE PROPHETS. 109 

Christian Church, or all true believers in Christ, the 
Spiritual Israel, shall be written ; which, in contra- 
distinction to Old Jerusalem, is called New Jerusa- 
lem, and which God has adopted in place of the 
twelve Jewish tribes. 

[My new name] — The Saviour of all, the Light 
that lightens the Gentiles ; the Christ, the Anointed 
one ; the only governer of his Church ; the Redeemer 
of all mankind, and Sovereign Ruler of universal 
dominion. My new name, King of kings, and Lord 
of lords ; for I shall rule supreme over ail kingdoms 
and empires. 

7. Laodicea, signifies people that are just, the 
city of the just people. This, then, is the allegory 
under which the last age of the Church is repre- 
sented, and it is precisely the age we should hope to 
see immediately before the second advent of the 
Messiah, and the commencement of the Millennium. 
The period of time for this age will be from A. D. 
2520 to 2940. 

The epistle to this Church, is in these words : 

" And unto the angel of the church of the Laodi- 
ceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faith- 
ful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation 
of God ; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold 
nor hot : I would thou wert cold or hot. So then 
because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor 
hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth ; Because 
thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and 
10 



110 PREDICTIONS 

have neea of nothing ; and knowest not that thou art 
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and 
naked : I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the 
fire, that thou may est be rich; and white raiment, 
that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of 
thy nakedness do not appear ; and anoint thine eyes 
with eye-salve, that thou mayest see. As many as 
I love, I rebuke and chasten : be zealous therefore, 
and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock : 
If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will 
come in to him, und will sup with him, and he with 
me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit 
with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and 
am set down with my Father in his throne. He that 
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto 
the churches." 

In the close of this epistle, the true Witness, to 
all events and vicissitudes through which his church 
has been called to pass, or ever will be called to 
pass, now declares that the end has come : " Be- 
hold I stand at the door and knock," as ever ready- 
to receive sinners, and though it is the evening of 
time, I will sup with him, and he with me in the mil- 
lenni kingdom. " To him that overcometh will I 
grant to sit with me in my throne (after the first 
resurrection), even as I also overcame (sin, Satan and 
death, at my resurrection), and am set down with 
my Father in his throne." 

Now, some may be ready to say, what do we gain 



OF THE PROPHETS. Ill 

by all this ? We learn that an infinite prescience 
has foretold these things, and therefore they were 
foreknown ; that an infinite wisdom and power con- 
trols these things ; and that through infinite good- 
ness all things are working together for good to 
them that love the appearing of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

What but infinite wisdom could have seen that the 
Church would have been so different, in different 
ages? 

1. First she was the City of Desire ; 2. Then the 
City of Bitterness ; 3. Then the City of Exaltation ; 
4. Then the City of Affliction ; 5. Then the City of 
Joy ; 6. Then the City of Friends and Brothers ; 7. 
Then, in the last age, the City of the Just, or the 
City of the Righteous, ready to be ruled by the Lord 
our righteousness. 

The predictions in regard to the past have been 
faithfully fulfilled, and, therefore, we believe that not 
one jot or tittle will fail in the future. 

We close this chapter with a few practical notes : 

EPISTLE TO THE CHURCH OF THE LAODICEANS. 

The Lord Jesus Christ addresses himself to this 
Church, under the attribute of Immutability, accuses 
them of the sin of indifference, and promises to all 
who overcome their sins, " will I grant to sit with me 
in my throne," as I also overcame, and am set down 
in my Father's throne. 



112 PREDICTIONS * 

[Y. 14. These tilings saith the Amen] — The 
things that are here said are uttered by him who 
ought to be heard by all, who will be heard by all 
who love him, and shall be heard by all who hate 
him, whether they will or not, when he announces 
their everlasting doom. 

[The faithful and true witness] — And what he 
says for his friends is faithful and true; it is all he 
ought to say, and no more, nothing wanting or wrong 
by excess or defect; and so when he shall bear tes 
timony against the workers of iniquity, out of their 
own mouths he will condemn them, and they shall 
acknowledge that he is in the strictest sense "the 
faithful and true witness," the beo-inning of the crea- 
tion of God ; that in faithfulness and truth, he is be- 
fore all, above all, bears rule over all creatures, and 
in all things has the pre-eminence. 

[Thou art neither cold nor hot] — You are not my 
zealous friends, nor my active enemies: you are in- 
different; you are not living as Christians ought, nor 
acting as Pagans do. But you seem not to care 
whether Paganism or Christianity prevails ! 

[I would thou wert cold or hot] — If you were cold, 
opposed, fighting against me, I should treat you ac- 
cording to your works : that is, if you were my 
avowed enemies, I should deal with you as enemies ; 
or, if ye were hot, active, and laboring for my cause 
and kingdom, I should treat you accordingly : that is, 
if you were my friends in profession and practice, I 



OF THE PROPHETS. 113 

would deal with you as my friends ! But you are 
neither ! Infinite wisdom is perplexed with your 
conduct, for it is unstable as the wind, and thy good- 
ness as fleeting as the morning cloud and early dew : 
0, Laodicea, what shall I do to thee? 

[So then, because thou art lukewarm] — Living so 
indifferently as to the great principles and practices 
of right and wrong, that Christians can scarcely dis- 
cern whether you are heathen or not, and Pagans 
can see little or no difference between you and them- 
selves. " Thou oughtest to be one kind of a man : 
either a good man or a bad man." There are many 
persons living so near the line which divides between 
right and wrong, it is hard to say whether they are 
good or bad. But God can not be deceived. 

[I will spew thee out of my mouth] — Food is taken 
into the stomach for the purpose of nourishing, 
strengthening, and building up the body; so when 
we are received into Christ, it is for the same pur- 
pose, that we may nourish, strengthen, and build up 
his body, the Church. But if we answer not this 
legitimate object, we shall be cast out, as lukewarm 
water, or offensive food, from the mouth. 

[Because thou sayest I am rich] — The effect of 
riches upon the human mind is to estrange it from 
its dependence on God, and cause it to look for hap- 
piness in the sordid things of sensuality. This was 
especially the condition of this Church; it was ready 
to say: "I am rich because I have gone along smoothly; 



114 PREDICTIONS. 

I have said smooth, tilings about Pagans by whom I 
am surrounded. I have had their patronage in busi- 
ness. I hare treated Christians kindly, though I 
have never appeared to be very solicitous about the 
diffusion of their doctrines ; done but little to estab- 
lish Christianity, or overthrow Idolatry. Therefore, 
having passed on quietly among men, I am rich, and 
increased with oroods, and have need of nothing.'"' 
Most contemptible mortal, thy dissimulation may 
have secured thee the wealth of the world! But 
what shall this profit thee, when called to account for 
denying me ? Thou fool, in this night of sin, thy 
soul shall be required of thee ! Thy conscience 
smites thee ; thy spirit reproves thee ; my word con- 
demns thee; and knowest not that thou art most 
wretched amidst thy riches, and miserable with the 
multitude of thy goods ; and poor, though surrounded 
with thy plenty: and blind to the daily wants of 
others, and the eternal interests of thine own soul; 
and naked in all thy doings and dealings; for all 
things lie open and naked before him who is thy Re- 
deemer, Saviour, and Judge : and will he not bring 
every work into judgment ? 

[V. 18. I counsel thee] — In view of thy helpless 
condition, my advice is free, it is wise ; and suits 
thy case in every particular. Thou art without 
white raiment, purity and salvation; naked before 
Grod ; and blind, so as not to see the means by which 
to cover thyself : and too poor to secure help with- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 115 

out my grace, and too proud to ask me for it ; for 
pride and poverty go together, especially in spiritual 
things. Thou art miserable on account of thy blind- 
ness, and wretched on account of thy poverty, which 
adds misery to affliction. Reader, this picture of 
this Church, is but the picture of other Churches 
and individuals. 0, hear the counsel of Christ; for 
although thy case is dreadful, if it be such as this, 
it is not yet hopeless ! 

[To buy of me gold tried in the fire] — True riches 
are represented under this emblem, and all who are 
not yet supplied, are invited to come, on the same 
condition as set forth by the prophet. " Ho ! every 
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; and he 
that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat: yea 
come, buy wine and milk without money and without 
price." Give yourselves unreservedly, soul and 
body, to the Lord, and this is all he will ask ; and in 
return he will give you his Holy Spirit, which is 
more valuable than all else that can be desired. 
Reader, all the treasures of the world are only im- 
aginary riches ; this alone can make thee truly rich. 
Poor gold diggers of earth, give yourselves for this 
gold, and be truly and forever rich. 

[White raiment] — The emblem of honor, protec- 
tion and purity ; the garment of salvation, that 
righteousness which is by faith of the Son of God, 
that thou mayest be clothed with the wedding gar- 
ment, and that the shame which would result to 



116 PREDICTIONS 

thee, for want of this raiment may not appear at the 
marriage feast. 

[Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve] — This anoint- 
ing is of God : the Holy Spirit is the good physician 
that applies it to the eyes of our mind, that we may 
see wonderful things out of God's word, his precepts, 
his threatenings against their violation, and his pro- 
mises to all who repent and live faithful. Buy this 
eye-salve, by humble prayer to God, who has pro- 
mised to be more ready to give it, his Holy Spirit, 
to them that ask him, than parents are to give good 
gifts to their children. Then thou mayest see 
plainly thy present perilous condition, and the things 
which make for thy future and eternal peace. 

[V. 19. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten] 
— I rebuke those who only need rebuke, and I chasten 
those who need chastisement, and do it from no other 
motive than love to all. No chastening is joyous, but 
grievous, yet it worketh the peaceable fruit of right- 
eousness to them that are disciplined thereby ; and I 
receive such and love them freely. But those who 
despise my reproof, and disregard my chastisements, 
I shall destroy them suddenly and without remedy. 
Be zealous, therefore, and repent: " Turn you at my 
reproof; behold, I will pour out my Spirit upon you, 
I will make known my words unto you." 

[Y. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock] — 
For the purpose of making known to you your con- 
dition, and I am in earnest about your case : I stand, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 117 

for there is no time to be loitered away : at the door ; 
I have come to thee, lest per adventure thou mightest 
excuse thyself in coming to me, on account of thy 
blindness, poverty and misery. So, out of love to 
thee, I have come to thy house to see thee just as 
thou art : I knock for entrance ; I am the good Phy- 
sician, I can cure thy blindness, relieve thy poverty, 
and remove thy misery ; and I will do all this freely, 
without money and without price, if thou wilt open 
the door and bid me welcome. 

[If any man hear my voice] — God speaks to man 
in many ways : in mercy by his Spirit, in a still, 
small voice ; in warning, in the whirlwind of rebuke 
by his faithful ministers ; and in the earthquake of 
his judgments, by the denunciations of his law 
against those who have rejected the propitious offers 
of Gospel grace. But if any man ivill open one door 
of repentance, God will open the windows of heaven 
and pour him out such a blessing there shall not be 
room to contain it. If man will ask, God will give. 

[And open the door] — His eyes to read my word, 
his ear to hear my word, his heart to heed my voice, 
by my word, and Spirit, and ministers. Whosoever 
has thus heard the voice of Christ is quickened into 
life, and has power to open the door and receive or 
reject this heavenly guest. The voice of Christ 
gives life, and the entrance of his 'word gives light. 
But it is man's own act to open his eyes to see, his 
ears to hear, and his heart to heed and receive Christ 
11 



118 PREDICTIONS 

and his word. God has given us eyes and ability 
to open or close them, but does not force us to do 
either; therefore, the opening of our eyes and see- 
ing, or the closing of our eyes and not seeing, is our 
own act; for we are moral agents, and treated as 
such. We must open the door of our own free will, 
and he will come in as cheerfully as the light comes 
to the open eye, for he is the true Light of the 
world. 

[I will sup with him] — -I will take up my abode 
with him; be his guest in the morn of life; I will 
be his constant companion; I will dine with him in 
the strength of manhood, at the noontide heat ; I 
will sup with him at eventide, when the day is grow- 
ing dim; and partake with him of his last bit of 
bread and water ; no difference how poor his cabin, 
how humble his hovel, or how trifling his tent, I will 
not be ashamed of him ; but I will be his familiar 
friend to the last, and I will prove it by eating with 
him. 

[And he with me] — I will feed him with angel's 
food, with the bread and water of life ; my presence 
shall be to him more than all the sons of men; my 
words shall be sweeter than honey, and the honey- 
comb; and the habitation I have for him shall be 
more delightful than Eden, and above all, I will grant 
to him to sit with me in my throne, and enjoy the 
eternal glory of my kingdom. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 119 

[V. 21. Will I grant to sit with me in my throne] — 
In every case it is to him that overcometh, to the 
conqueror, that the final promise is made. He that 
conquers not, is not crowned; therefore, every pro- 
mise is here made to him that is faithful unto death. 
Here is a most remarkable expression: Jesus has 
conquered and is set down with the Father, upon the 
Father's throne. He who conquers through Christ, 
sits down with Christ upon his throne. But Christ's 
throne and the throne of the Father is the same; 
and it is on the same throne that those who are faith- 
ful unto death are finally to sit. How astonishing 
this state of exaltation ! The dignity and grandeur 
of it, who can conceive? This is the worst of the 
seven churches, and yet the most eminent of all the 
promises is made to it; showing that the worst may 
repent, and attain even the highest state of glory. 

[V. 22. He that hath an ear let him hear] — All 
these promises are conditional. The doctrine of the 
unconditional election of individual men to eternal 
life is more modern than the teachings of this Reve- 
lation; and as this is the last epistle of God's will to 
men, given with the promise of a blessing to all who 
read it, and hear it, and heed it ; and a curse de- 
nounced against him that adds to or takes from it, 
we should be particular that all our doctrines and 
practices agree with the infallible teachings of this 
divine Revelation. Antinominism, and the impos- 
sibility of falling from grace, are not taught in this 



120 PEEDICTIONS 

book. If we have in any measure fallen away from 
our steadfastness, or the divine favor, let us repent 
and do the first works, for the promise is to him who 
is faithful unto death. There is no such doctrine, as 
once in grace, always in grace, without the possibil- 
ity of becoming lukewarm, for we learn that all 
seven of these Churches had in some measure apos- 
tatized. If the seven ages of the Church were not 
designed to be represented by the allegory of these 
seven churches, why were they chosen in preference 
to all others? Were there not many other cities 
and churches of equal or greater importance? 



OF THE PROPHETS. 121 



CHAPTER IV. 



We are told by the prophet in this chapter, that 
he was permitted to see the throne of God in heaven, 
and the four and twenty Elders, and the four Beasts 
full of eyes before and behind, and he saw the Elders 
reverently lay down their crowns, and worship Him 
that sat on the throne. 

After having had a view of the Church through 
seven successive ages, and having seen her priva- 
tions, persecutions, and final triumphs, after the 
vicissitudes of 2940 years ; he now hears as it were 
a trumpet talking with him, which said : " Come up 
hither, and I tuill show thee things which must be here- 
after" concerning nations, kingdoms, empires, and 
republics. But as we are compelled to be brief, we 
must refer the reader once more to the large work, 
by the author, ", The Voice of the Prophets." A 
Beast in prophetic language, when used figuratively, 
signifies a political government. These four beasts, 
then, like the four beasts seen by Daniel coming up 
out of the sea, signify four political governments, 
which were to be hereafter, that is, after the giving 
of this Revelation. The first of these beasts was 
beyond a doubt, the Pagan Roman Government, 
which, like a Lion, held the supremacy among the 



122 PREDICTIONS 

nations 420 years, or to the end of the Seal Period ; 
then his power began to decline, and the papal power 
to increase for about 100 years, when the former 
entirely lost its power, and the latter, the Papal 
Government, gained complete supremacy, and held 
it uncontrolled and without any decline, until 1683. 
Then, like the Pagan Roman Government, for the 
next hundred years its power was fluctuating, and 
by 1783 it had completely lost the supremacy. This 
government w T as a dual or double government. The 
Ox — political power — did the work ; the Man — eccle- 
siastical power — directed and controlled in the affairs 
of State as the driver does his oxen. This govern- 
ment is St. John's seven-headed and ten-horned 
beast, which we shall show the reader more fully 
hereafter. Then the fourth beast was like a flying 
Eagle, and as this beast or government was to be the 
next and last, and as the American government, 
" the United States of America," did gain the su- 
premacy over all other governments in 1783, and as 
she has on her banners the emblem of the "flying 
Eagle," therefore, the conclusion is inevitable that 
the United States of America is designed, under the 
above emblem, and as certainly foretold, as any of 
the great governments of any time, country, or 
nation. And what settles the difficulty beyond a 
doubt, in my mind, as to these beasts or govern- 
ments, is the chronological facts contained in the 
predictions of the prophets. The old Pagan Roman 



OF THE PROPHETS. 123 

Beast, the Lion, was to hold the supremacy for a 
time, times and a half time, or 1260 years, which 
brings us from the foundation of Rome, say 737 B. 
C. to 523 A. D. Then the ox and man government, 
St. John's Beast having seven heads and ten horns, 
which we shall notice more fully in the proper place, 
was to continue the same length of time of the prev- 
ious beast, so that if we add 523 to 1260=1783, we 
have the year in which the ox-man power lost its 
supremacy ; not that it was destroyed any more than 
the old Pagan Roman government; but the Flying 
Eagle gained the supremacy over it. And as no 
other government came into existence or was recog- 
nized as an independent and powerful government 
in that year, it follows beyond a reasonable doubt, 
that the United States of America is the government 
foretold b}^ the prophet. We shall also notice, in the 
proper place, that the United States of America is 
foretold under the emblem of the two-horned beast, 
just as certainly as the ox and man government is 
foretold under the emblem of the seven-headed and 
ten-horned beast. 

We submit a few practical and critical notes: 
[V. 1. After this I looked, and behold a door was 
opened in heaven] — After having received the former 
communications to the seven churches, and seen the 
former vision of Christ on earth, in the seven 
churches, amidst the seven golden candlesticks, and 
holding the seven stars in his right hand, enlighten- 



124 PREDICTIONS 

ing, sustaining, and directing all; then St. John was 
immediately in the spirit, (absent from the body, and 
present with the Lord, and overshadowed by the 
Spirit of prophetic wisdom,) and the first voice which 
he heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with 
him, which said: "Come up hither, and I will show 
thee the things which must be hereafter." The historic 
and didactic part of this book ends with the three 
former chapters, and with this the Prophetic Revela- 
tions commence. 

[Y. 2. And behold, a throne was set in heaven, 
and one sat on the throne] — How wonderfully glori- 
ous must the heavenly world appear to a disembodied 
spirit, caught away from all its earthly surroundings, 
and with its powers so completely developed, as to 
see as it has been seen, and know as it has been 
known ; seeing and knowing at once the past, pres- 
ent, and the future. What a divine fitness must ap- 
pear in all God's dispensations ! an eternal goodness 
in all his dealings with all his creatures ! and an in- 
finite wisdom and power in all his works, throughout 
his universal dominions ! 

[V. 3. And he that sat, was to look upon like a 
jasper and a sardine stone] — The countenance of 
this Glorious One was exquisitely beautiful ; the jas- 
per, the ground-work of the color, a beautiful trans- 
parent white, and the sardine stone color, some of 
which are of a beautiful vermillion, completes the 
prophetic picture. There is no attempt at a descrip- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 125 

tion of the divine Personage, so as to point out any 
similitude, form, or dimensions. It appears to be 
the object of the prophet to point out the surround- 
ing glory and grandeur of the divine throne and res- 
idence, rather than the person of the immortal and 
Almighty King. The jasper and sardine stone com- 
bined, are emblems of immortal youth and beauty. 
Beloved, it doth not yet appear what we shall be ? 
we are not yet clothed with our glorified bodies, but 
we shall be like Christ, when he appears in his glory 
to receive us into the inheritance of the saints ! 

[A rainbow round about the throne] — The rainbow 
is the emblem of perfect light and beauty, and yet as 
gracious to the eye as the emerald, which is of a 
lively and variable green, which seems to signify that 
the effulgence of light vras so tempered by refraction 
and reflection, as to be perfectly agreeable to all in 
the divine presence. Light is that invisible ethereal 
matter which renders objects perceptible by the vis- 
ual organs. It appears to be distributed throughout 
the immensity of the universe, and is essentially re- 
quisite to the enjoyment of every rank of perceptive 
existence. It is by the agency of this mysterious 
substance that we become acquainted with the beau- 
ties and sublimities of the universe, and the wonder- 
ful operations of the Almighty Creator. Such, then, 
are the important and beneficent effects of that light 
which every moment diffuses its blessings around us* 
It may justly be considered as one of the most essen- 



126 PREDICTIONS 

tial substances connected with the system of the ma- 
terial universe, and which gives efficiency to all the 
other principles and arrangements of nature. Hence 
we are informed, in the sacred history (of creation), 
that light was the first production of the Almighty 
Creator, and the first-born of created beings ; for 
without it the whole universe would have presented 
nothing but an immense blank to perceptive exis- 
tences. Hence, likewise, the Divine Being is meta- 
phorically represented under the idea of light, as 
being the source of knowledge and felicity, to all 
subordinate intelligences : " God is light, and in him 
is no darkness at all;" and he is exhibited as dwell- 
ing in light unapproachable and full of glory, whom 
no man hath seen or can see while the spirit is im- 
prisoned in the body. As light is an element of so 
much importance and utility to the system of nature, 
so we find arrangements have been made for its 
complete diffusion throughout all the worlds of the 
universe. 

So from the eternal throne, the light of divine 
truth emanates in mildest rays, suited to every ca- 
pacity, and adapted to the heart-wants of every 
child of man ; and complete arrangements have been 
made in the Gospel, for its universal diffusion, until 
the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of 
the glory of the Lord. 

[V. 4. And round about the throne four and twenty 
seats ; and upon the seats I saw four and twenty 



OF THE PROPHETS. 127 

elders, clothed in white raiment, and they had on 
their heads, crowns of gold] — These elders are evi- 
dently put by a figure of speech, called metonomy, 
for the whole host of God's elect — twelve represent- 
ing the Jewish Church, and twelve the Christian 
Church — twelve patriarchs and twelve apostles make 
twenty-four. 

[And out of the throne proceeded lightnings] — 
The opening of the seven seals, which was first in 
the order of the divine government, was evidently 
for the purpose of imparting light on the dark and 
mysterious future. Light is first in grace as well as 
in nature. 

[And thunderings] — The sounding of the seven 
trumpets, the voice of Gospel grace, declaring the 
promise of heavenly showers. [And voices.] The 
pouring out the seven vials — the revealing the wrath 
of God from heaven, against all ungodliness and un- 
righteousness of men who hold the truth in unright- 
eousness. 

[And there were seven lamps of fire burning be- 
fore the throne] — The concluding member of this 
verse explains who are meant by the seven lamps of 
fire : they are the seven spirits of God, the seven 
orders of created spirits, which are in the Scriptures 
represented under the similitude of a flame of fire. 
1. Spirits of the just made perfect; 2. Angels; 3. 
Archangels ; 4. Cherubim ; 5. Seraphim ; 6. Princi- 
palities ; 7. Powers : all ready to do the will of God 



128 PREDICTIONS 

for the heirs of salvation ; bearing to them words 
of comfort, or the voices of warning and wisdom ; or 
denouncing against his enemies the thunderings of 
his wrath, or the lightnings of his vengeance ! These 
are the seven spirits of God, by creation, redemption, 
and subordination ; and compose the heavenly family, 
and are constantly employed in doing the will of our 
heavenly Father. 

[And before the throne there was a sea of glass, 
like unto crystal] — Whenever the term sea is used 
in this book in an emblematic sense, it signifies the 
Church. When qualified by the adjective glass or 
crystal, it implies the Church of the first-born, which 
are in heaven, and are pure and perfect ; while the 
sea, or Church of earth, is more or less commingled 
with the beggarly elements of the world. The text 
then expresses the idea, that round about the throne 
was a countless number of pure, holy and happy 
beings, like a vast sea of attendants and ministers 
before the throne of the Supreme King ! 

[Four beasts full of eyes, before and behind] — 
The four beasts here, I humbly conceive to signify 
the four great political powers of the earth, which 
were as completely under the control of the divine 
Being, as if in the midst, or immediately in the pres- 
ence of the throne; for he that sits upon the throne 
is omniscient, all things lie open before him in all 
places of his vast dominions, whether in the heavens 
or the earth. There were but four great 'political 



OF THE PROPHETS. 129 

governments to exist from this time to the final ex- 
tinction of all political governments and the estab- 
lishment of the Millennial kingdom. But one of 
these was to be a double government, as the fulfill- 
ment proves, and therefore they are represented as 
four beasts or governments. These governments, 
or beasts, were full of eyes, or officers, looking every 
way to promote the interests of their government, 
from the highest to the lowest, from head to foot, 
before and behind. The laws of men are retrospect- 
ive, looking behind or back into the past for preced- 
ents, by which to be guided in the future ; while the 
law of God is prospective, being dictated by an in- 
finite prescience, which sees the end from the begin- 
ning, and lays down beforehand, rules of action for 
his creatures throughout the interminable ages of 
eternity. But it appears that all these beasts were 
to have been both human and divine laws, to look 
behind and before, and officers of the same char- 
acter. 

1. The Old Roman government — the lion. 

2. The New Roman gevernment — the calf or ox. 

3. The Church and State government — the man. 

4. The Republican Empire— the flying eagle. 
[The first beast was like a lion] — The Old Roman 

Empire was among governments what the lion is 
among beasts ; it had the mastery, and swayed the 
scepter of empire uncontrolled among the nations 



130 PREDICTIONS 

for more tlian one thousand years. — (See Gibbon's 
Rome) 

[The second beast like a calf or ox] — How true 
this description of the New Roman Empire, whose 
laws were remodeled under Justinian, about the year 
A. D., 520 to 540. It was like an unused ox or 
calf; for the people and rulers were not used to the 
Pandects and Institutes ; yet this government was 
patient and useful as an ox. 

[And the third beast had a face as a man] — The 
Roman Pontifical government claimed to be the 
highest order of government ; to be among govern- 
ments, what man is among the creatures of earth; 
the head, the chief, the greatest. And as the ox 
alone is of no use to labor, so the New Roman gov- 
ernment or ox was directed and controlled by the 
man. And this same government is symbolized by 
another beast, having seven heads and ten horns, 
upon whom the " woman" clothed in scarlet sits, and 
directs all its movements. These two governments 
sustain the relation of cause and effect to each other, 
and when the beast falls, the rider goes down with 
it. Hence, the beast and false prophet fall together 
at the same time. 

[And the fourth beast was like a flying eagle] — ■ 
This, the highest and noblest form of political gov- 
ernment, is represented by an eagle, a free eagle ; 
one that enjoys universal liberty. So the govern- 
ment of which the eagle is the emblem is to be a 



OF THE PROPHETS. 131 

iberal government, a universal Republican Empire, 
and is to extend its power rapidly as the flying eagle, 
over all the world. America is now the land and the 
home of the Flying Eagle. 

[V. 8. And the four beasts had each of them six 
wings about him] — It would appear that the provi- 
dence of God was equally watchful over all his 
creatures, and that, through secondary causes, he 
was continually caring for the moral welfare of all 
mankind. Each of these beasts had six wings, or 
angels with wings ;u therefore they had twenty-four 
wings in all, which just corresponds with the twenty- 
four elders which surround the throne, and are repre- 
sentatives of the whole heavenly host, which are 
everywhere, in the Scriptures, represented as flying 
and watching over the interests of men and nations. 

[And they are fall of eyes within] — They are 
constantly concerned for the moral welfare of politi- 
cal governments ; they are the officers, who are look- 
ing within the minds and hearts of men, and, under 
the Holy Spirit, comfort the good, and reprove the 
bad of sin, of righteousness, and of a judgment to 
come. These living creatures, which are looking at 
the internal workings of all governments, will so 
control its internal machinery, the minds and hearts 
of men, that they will be constrained to give up their 
corrupt, cruel, unjust and imperfect governments, 
and submit to the divine kingdom in. all things. 
This is clearly indicated by the example which these 



132 PREDICTIONS 

holy beings present to us. They rest not day and 
night, saying, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, 
which was, and is, and is to come;" for thy kingdom 
is holy, and almighty, and everlasting, and must rule 
over all. 

[Y. 9. And when those beasts give glory] — Of all 
their power and dominion, and the honor of all their 
labors, and substance, and thanks of all their hearts 
to him that sat on the throne, for his mercy and 
goodness, who liveth forever and ever, and acknowl- 
edged his universal and everlasting dominion ; for all 
kings shall cast their crowns before his throne, and 
all kingdoms shall serve him; for he liveth forever 
and ever. 

[V. 10. The four and twenty elders fall down be- 
fore him that sat on the throne] — These elders, and 
the four beasts, are the symbols of the whole family 
of God's rational creatures in heaven and in earth. 
The four beasts symbolize earthly and temporal 
things ; the four and twenty elders symbolize spiritual 
and eternal things, and are, therefore, working to- 
gether, as a wheel in a wheel, throughout the vast 
dominions of the Almighty, to accomplish his pur- 
poses in bringing all things subservient to his will. 
These sustain the relation of cause and effect to each 
other, they work together, and, in the fullness of 
time, at the restitution of all things, will worship 
him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their 
crowns, the ensigns of their power and dignity, be- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 133 

fore the throne of the King of kings, humbly ac- 
knowledging the infinite and eternal supremacy of 
God, and that from him they have derived their 
being, and all their blessings, both temporal and 
eternal. 

[V. 11. Thou art worthy, Lord, to receive glory, 
and honor, and power ; for thou hast created all 
things ; and for thy pleasure they are, and were 
created] — In the fullness of time, all powers in 
heaven and earth, shall unite in one jubilant song; 
for the year of jubilee will come, and all the slaves 
of earthly governments shall go free, and all lands 
which have been alienated during the whole period 
of political and moral rebellion, shall revert to their 
former and proper owner, the Supreme Ruler of the 
universe. We learn from this doxology, that God 
has an indisputable and inalienable right, by crea- 
tion, to all things ; and that they were created for his 
pleasure, and that they are yet created for the same 
high and holy purpose. And that actuated by the 
same motive, he preserves, and will forever perpetu- 
ate their existence. Wherefore we justly conclude 
that he hates no creature which he has made ; and 
that he never has, nor ever will create any rational 
being to make it eternally miserable without its own 
fault. No wonder that one of the most prominent 
advocates of the contrary doctrine should be dis- 
posed to deny the authenticity of this Revelation ; 
for his theory of unconditional election and repro- 
12 



134 PREDICTIONS 

bation finds no countenance or support in the teach- 
ings of this book ! 

It is worthy of our notice, that there appears to 
be an evident allusion to the encampment of the 
Israelites in the wilderness; and as everything in 
the Mosaic dispensation was typical of future and 
heavenly things, we may receive instruction by re- 
flecting upon them. Jewish writers inform us, that 
upon the different ensigns, or standards, when set 
up in the encampment, that they were arranged in 
the following order, into four grand divisions, of 
three tribes each, and that it was in the following 
manner, with the following emblems : 

1. The lion, on the standard of Judah, Issacher, 
and Zebulon. These three tribes occupied the East 
of the encampment. 

2. The calf, or ox, on the standard of Ephraim, 
Manasseh and Benjamin. These three tribes occu- 
pied the South of the encampment. 

3. A man, on the standard of Ruben, Simeon, 
and Gad. These three tribes occupied the West of 
the encampment. 

4. A flying eagle, on the standard of Dan, Asher, 
and Naphtali. These three tribes occupied the 
North of the encampment. 

Rabbi Abin says : " There are four which have 
principality in this world: among intellectual crea- 
tures, Man; among birds, the Eagle ; among cattle, 
the Ox ; and among wild beasts, the Lion. Each of 



OF THE PROPHETS. 135 

these has a kingdom and a certain magnificence ; and 
they are placed under the throne of glory (Ezek. i, 
10), to show that no creature is to exalt itself in 
this world, and that the kingdom of God is over all." 
As there are but four industrious and useful 
classes of mankind, I humbly conceive that the 
lion is emblematic of rulers; the ox, of husband- 
men ; the MAN, of ARTIFICERS, or ARTISTS ; the EAGLE, 
Of MERCHANTS, 01" CARRIERS. 

Now these make up the nations of the Earth, and 
they are all under the control of the divine govern- 
ment, just as much as if they were in heaven ; for 
He who is omniscient and omnipotent, is controlling 
all things by his infinite power, wisdom and good- 
ness ; hence, all things are open and naked before 
Him, and are working together for good to all who 
love God and keep his commandments. 



136 PREDICTIONS 



CHAPTER Y. 

The Prophet tells us in this chapter, that he saw 
in the ri,ght hand of him that sat on the throne of 
God, a book sealed with seven seals, which only the 
Lamb that was slain, is worthy to open. " And He 
came and took the book out of the right hand of 
him that sat upon the throne, and when he had taken 
the book, the four Beasts and the four and twenty 
elders fell down before the Lamb, saying, Thou art 
worthy to take the book, and to open the seals 
thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to 
God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, 
and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our 
God kings and priests ; and ive shall reign on the 
Earth" We here submit a few brief critical and 
practical notes on this chapter. 

[V. 1. And I saw in the right hand of him that 
sat on the throne, a book written within and on the 
back side] — A book is the emblem of perfect order. 
This book, being written within and on the back 
side, indicates that the Throne has maintained the 
strictest and wisest order, back in all past time, and 
will do the same in all future time. That which was 
written within, was sealed from all creatures, and 
none knew its import but the all-wise King. That 
which was written upon the back side, was seen by 



OF THE PROPHETS. 137 

all, yet understood by none, in any part of his uni- 
versal dominions. 

[Sealed with seven seals] — As the throne was 
surrounded or enveloped with the rainbow, the em- 
blem of perfect light, and attended by the four beasts, 
and four and twenty elders, the emblem of complete 
dominion ; and the written book, the emblem of per- 
fect order, and sealed with seven seals, the emblem 
of perfect wisdom, indicating that the contents of 
the book were so obscure and mystical, and the facts 
it predicted, and the works it proposed so difficult 
and stupendous, that they could not be performed 
by any finite wisdom or power ; and that the seals 
were so intricate, that they could neither be coun- 
terfeited nor broken by any finite wisdom or power. 

[V. 2. And I saw a mighty angel] — I use the term 
mighty, instead of strong, because the word, in the 
original Greek, is so rendered elsewhere, by our 
translators, especially in Chapter X, where it ap- 
pears to me, this angel is referred to. 

[Proclaiming with a loud voice] — Here is an allu- 
sion to the Oriental custom, among kings, of sending 
a herald before them, to make known their wills to 
their subjects ; so the Almighty King, sends forth a 
mighty angel, one becoming the dignity, grandeur 
and glory of his vast dominions, to proclaim his wise 
and holy will. 

[Who is worthy to open the book] — Who can in- 



138 PREDICTIONS 

terpret or explain even those things whicn are writ- 
ten on the outside of this book ? 

[And loose the seals thereof!] — So as to read, and 
interpret, and explain its wonderful counsels ? Who 
has the qualifications for this work ? Who can un- 
derstand the order of the divine government ? Who 
can tell what shall be, and the order of events f 
" Canst thou by searching find out God ? Canst 
thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? His 
ways and wisdom are as high as heaven ; what canst 
thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?" 
— Job v, 11. " 0, the depth of the riches both of 
the wisdom and knowledge of God ? How unsearch- 
able are his judgments, and his ways past finding 
out ! Eor who hath known the mind of the Lord ? 
or who hath been his counselor ? or who hath first 
given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him 
again? For of him, and through him, and to him 
are all things : to whom be glory forever. Amen." — 
Rom. xi, 33-36. 

[V. 3. And no man in heaven] — Among the spirits 
of just men made perfect ; [nor in the earth,] by the 
wisest who yet dwell in fleshly tabernacles ; [neither 
under the earth,] among the dead or demons, was 
able to open the book, neither to look thereon. 

[V. 4. And I wept much, because no man was 
found worthy to open and read the book] — Because 
no being in heaven, or earth, or hell, could understand 
the order and wisdom of the divine counsel and 



OF THE PKOPHETS. 139 

economy, in regard to the future government of the 
Church and the world. 

[Neither to look thereon] — No finite being pos- 
sesses the power of prescience, and therefore could 
not foresee the order of the events in the divine gov- 
ernment, and their relations and contingencies, their 
commencement and completion! No one but God 
can look into the future, and tell precisely what will 
be the commencement, the course, the time, and the 
completion of events. But we learn from the Reve- 
lation, that Jesus Christ does all this ; therefore, he 
is in the highest sense " The only wise God, our 
Saviour, to whom be glory and majesty, dominion 
and power, both now and ever, Amen." 

[V. 5. And one of the elders saith unto me, weep 
not] — This is evidently one of the four and twenty 
elders to whom the prophet was introduced, when 
he first appeared before the throne. How kind and 
fraternal, and how unlike forgetful or vain mortals 
on earth. He needed no second introduction. 

[Behold the Lion of the Tribe of Judah] — Here 
we have a clear instance of the emblematic character 
of this Revelation. Almost every person, place, 
character and event, is metaphorically represented 
in the counsels of this book. Jesus Christ is cer- 
tainly represented under the above emblem ; for he 
was of the seed of David, as to his human nature ; 
and evidently of the tribe of Judah, according to the 
flesh. — Matt, i : Luke hi. 



140 PREDICTIONS 

[The root of David] — Christ, in his divine nature, 
is represented here and elsewhere in the Scriptures, 
as being the root, the first original cause of David. 
But then we are clearly instructed that Christ pos- 
sesses two natures; and, therefore, as to his human 
nature, he is declared to be a branch of the stem of 
Jesse. 

[Hath prevailed to open the book] — Jesus Christ, 
by the merit of his divinity and supremacy, prevailed, 
succeeded to accomplish that which no mortal or im- 
mortal finite being could do ; to open the book, to un- 
fold the order and ways of infinite wisdom ; and to 
loose the seven seals, to make perfectly plain that 
which was hidden, impossible, and incomprehensible 
to all finite beings in the universe. 

[Y. 6. And I beheld, and lo ! in the midst of the 
throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the 
elders] — The Deity of Christ entitles him to equality 
in the throne of universal empire ; for as we have 
already seen, his throne and the Father's throne are 
one and the same : therefore, he and the Father are 
one in glory, and power, and eternity. We are 
taught in this verse, that Christ has the pre-eminence 
in the throne : He has the pre-eminence amidst the 
beasts, the governments of earth. He has the pre- 
eminence amidst the elders, the armies of heaven ; 
and therefore has in all things the pre-eminence. — 
Here we have under these beautiful emblems, the 
glorious exaltation of Christ after his humble incar- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 141 

nation, his vicarious sufferings, and his triumphant 
resurrection and ascension. 

[Having seven horns and seven eyes, which are 
the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the 
earth.] — Here are wonderful things clothed in mys- 
tical emblems, and we seem to be only at the begin- 
ning, and we may exclaim with the angel, "How long 
shall it be to the end of these wonders ?" A horn is 
the emblem of 'power. Seven is the number or em- 
blem of perfection. Therefore, seven horns are the 
emblem of perfect power. Eyes are the emblem of 
knowledge and wisdom, watchfulness and vigilance. 
Therefore seven eyes are the emblem of perfect wis- 
dom. The seven spirits of God evidently signify, as 
we have elsewhere shown, to be the seven orders of 
created spirits, which are all his offspring, and con- 
stitute the glory of his eternal and ever blessed king- 
dom. These all receive their poiver, wisdom, and 
glory from God, and under the guidance of his infi- 
nite and hoty Spirit, go forth into all the earth, as 
well as heaven, for no part of his vast dominions is" 
ever neglected ; for he is constantly concerned 
through secondary causes, to promote the happiness 
of all his creatures. 

[V. 7. And he came and took the book out of 
the right hand of him that sat upon the throne] — 
Through Jesus Christ all the wonderful counsels 
of God, and the great mysteries of the kingdom of 
heaven, which had been sealed up for ages, are 
13 



142 PREDICTIONS 

made known in this last dispensation, in the writ- 
ings of the seven Apostles, and this Book of his rev- 
elation. 

[V. 8. And when he had taken the book, the 
four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down 
before the Lamb] — Here is an allusion to the an- 
cient custom of petty kings or chiefs prostrating 
themselves before the emperor. So this act of 
the beasts and elders is a token of humble sub- 
mission to the power, wisdom, and goodness of the 
Lamb. 

[Having every one of them harps] — The emblem 
of exalted, pure, and peaceful pleasure, which all the 
host of heaven enjoy in the very highest degree. 
They present themselves before the Lamb with praise 
for the past, and with prayers for the future. Reader, 
do the same. Praise him for past mercies, present 
favors, and future promises. 

[V. 9. And they sung a new song] — The old song 
of creation had been sung, as in a perpetual anthem, 
since the day the morning stars sang together, and 
the sons of God shouted for joy; when he spread the 
north over the empty space, and hung the earth up- 
on nothing but his power. But in the new song of 
Redemption, the whole family in heaven and in earth 
unite in one triumphant doxology ; and the joy of 
earth is three-fold: for she feels that she is now 
bound to the throne, by the golden cord of infinite 
power, wisdom, and goodness. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 143 

[Stood a lamb as it had been slain] — Here the true 
sense is again to be looked for under metaphorical 
emblems ; and the mystical language of this book in- 
creases in depth and grandeur as we pass on through 
its pages. Jesus Christ is called the Lamb, because 
of his sacrificial offering of himself for the sins of 
the world; and is the antitype of the lambs which 
were offered age after age on Jewish altars. These 
lambs were offered for the sins of a single nation, 
and, figuratively, through faith, took away their in- 
iquity. But Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, truly 
takes away the sin of the world. 

[As it had been slain] — The language of this text 
is very remarkable. The former part of the verse 
gave Christ the highest glory : the latter part gives 
us his lowest humility. Here, then, by antithesis, 
we see the deity and humanity of our blessed Lord 
and Saviour. While he is sovereign over all, he is 
at the same time represented as in the act of being 
offered as a sacrifice, and making intercession for 
the transgressors. The sacrificial offering of Jesus 
Christ, is of so great importance in the counsel of 
God, that he is now represented as being in the very 
act of pouring out his blood for the offenses of the 
human race. This view of the subject gives great 
courage to faith ; for whosoever comes to the throne 
of the heavenly mercy, finds a sacrifice already pro- 
vided, to offer to God. And all coming generations, 
to the end of the mediatorial kingdom, shall find 



144 PREDICTIONS 

that they have a perfect sacrifice ready to offer for 
their sins ; and shall have, therefore, boldness to 
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Heb. x. 

[V. 9. Every kindred, and tongue, and people, 
and nation] — All mankind were equally the objects 
of God's creative power, and were and are created 
for his pleasure, as we are informed in the doxology 
of creation, at the close of Chapter IV. But then 
they are equally the subjects of his redeeming love ; 
were redeemed, and are saved for their own pleasure 
and his declarative glory. If all were the objects 
of his creation, then are all the objects of his re- 
demption. But the former is true, and the latter 
can not be false. All these are represented as being 
redeemed by the blood, and not the sufferings of 
Christ, plainly teaching that his life was a sacrificial 
offering for the sins of the world. 

[V. 10. And hast made us unto our God kings and 
priests] — By exalting us, by the act of redemption 
from the bondage of Satan and sin, and exalting us 
to thy throne. And we now have the high preroga- 
tive of priests, and the privilege of coming unto the 
throne of grace in person, by the new and living way 
which our great High Priest has opened up through 
the vail ; that is to say, his flesh. 

[And we shall reign on the earth] — Christians 
have never yet reigned on the earth, and diffused the 
principles of their kingdom among the nations, and 
established the laws of the Supreme King of kings 



OF THE PROPHETS. 145 

as the rule of action among men ; but the time will 
come when the saints of the Most High shall possess 
the kingdom, and Christ be king alone. 

[And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many an- 
gels round about the throne] — The prophet saw the 
countless number of angels in all their immortal 
beauty, purity and power, around the throne, ready 
to go and do the will of God, throughout his univer- 
sal dominions. And St. John heard the voice of this 
vast multitude of angels. Beasts and elders are evi- 
dently put by apposition with angels, and are a 
representative symbol of all the creatures of God's 
rational and moral government of mortals and im- 
mortals. Here, then, the apostle is an eye and ear 
witness of the immense multitude of rational, holy 
and happy beings which are always present about 
the throne, praising God in joyful anthems, and for- 
ever delighted to do his will. 

[And the number of them was ten thousand times 
ten thousand (100,000,000 millions), and thousands 
of thousands (1,000,000,000,000 trillion)]— These 
numbers are to be considered as the four beasts and 
four and twenty elders; the first as giving a definite 
idea of the emigrants of earth, who, by the grace of 
God, have left these lands of sorrow, and have taken 
up their residence in the world of eternal joy, around 
the everlasting throne. What a goodly number have 
already gone on to glory, to colonize the blissful 
climes of immortality; and we will follow on in the 



146 PREDICTIONS 

steps of their faith, till we come to the inheritance of 
the saints ! The last of these numbers is just ten 
thousand times more than the first; and is designed 
to give us a definite idea of the hosts of heaven, 
the high and holy orders of angels who kept their 
first estate. 

The idea of a place sufficiently capacious for such 
vast multitudes of beings, is almost beyond human 
comprehension. But if we reflect for a moment on 
the infinity of space, and the amplitude of the worlds 
known or unknown to us, which revolve through its 
immensity, we need entertain no scruples on this 
subject. " We have no reason to entertain the least 
doubt that the stars are in reality SUNS and distribu- 
tors of light to other worlds, any more than we ought 
to doubt of the motion of the earth, because we have 
never from a fixed point in the firmament, beheld it 
wheeling its rapid course through the ethereal space 
around the sun. Since the stars can not, with the 
least show of reason, be supposed to have been 
created chiefly for the use of our globe, it is certain, 
as moral demonstration can make it, that they were 
intended to fill a higher and a nobler purpose; and 
this purpose has respect to the accommodation and 
happiness of intelligent existence, either in the stars 
themselves, or in the worlds which revolve around 
them." For the creator and governor of the uni- 
verse must be considered in all his arrangements, as 
acting in perfect consistency with those perfections 



OF THE PROPHETS. 147 

of his nature with which he is eternally and essen- 
tially invested. But to suppose the immeasurable 
host of stars to be so many vast insulated globes, 
hung up to irradiate the void space of infinitude, 
would be repugnant to all the conceptions which 
reason and revelation lead us to form of a being of 
infinite perfection. If, then, the fixed stars are the 
centers of light and influence to surrounding worlds, 
how immense must the empire be, over which the 
moral government of the Almighty extends ! How 
expansive the range, and how diversified the order 
of planetary systems ! How numerous beyond cal- 
culation the worlds which incessantly revolve through- 
out the immensity of space ! What countless legions 
of intellectual beings, of every rank and capacity, 
must crowd the boundless dominions of the King, 
eternal, immortal and invisible ! And how glorious 
and incomprehensible must he be, whose word caused 
this vast fabric to start into existence, and who super- 
intends, every moment, the immensity of beings with 
which it is replenished ! In attempting to grasp such 
scenes, the human mind is bewildered and over- 
whelmed ; and can only exclaim, " Great and mar- 
velous ARE THY WORKS, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY ! " 

[V. 12. Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the 
Lamb that was slain] — As a sacrificial offering, a 
propitiation for our sins, and the sins of our race. 

[To receive power] — Dominion over all he has re- 
deemed ; [and riches ;] all human resources ; they 



148 PREDICTIONS 

should love and serve him with all their heart, and 
mind, and strength; [and wisdom j\ omniscience 
should be ascribed to the Lamb, for he knowetk our 
outgoings and incomings ; we should give up our 
wills and wisdom to him, for he knows how to do all 
things well — to use the best means to the best ends 
for our good and the glory of his kingdom; [and 
strength:'] omnipotence, all power, in heaven and 
earth is to be ascribed to the Le.mb, for all power in 
heaven and earth is his ; [and honor ;] the highest 
reputation for the tvisdom, power and goodness he 
has manifested in the destruction of the works of 
the devil, and the redemption of the world; [and 
glory ;] we should praise Christ for our redemption 
and salvation, for he is worthy to receive the glory ; 
it is his due now as when the ten lepers were 
cleansed ; but only one returned to give him glory 
for their salvation : " Were there not ten cleansed • 
where are the nine ? They have not returned to 
give glory to God," and to the Lamb, through whose 
atoning blood they were cleansed ; [and blessing ;] 
a thankful, humble acknowledgment, that of him, 
and to him, and through him, are all the blessings 
of redemption and eternal salvation. We acknowl- 
edge, thou Lamb of God ! that our power, and 
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and 
glory, and blessings come of thee, for thou art the 
giver of every good and perfect gift ; the author of 
our present and eternal salvation. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 149 

\Y. 13. And every creature which is in heaven, 
and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as 
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I, say- 
ing, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power] — 
In the language of personification, all creatures, ani- 
mate and inanimate, are represented as saying, we 
acknowledge that all the blessing, pleasure of our 
creation ; and honor, reputation for having always 
done right ; and glory, praise for doing thy will now ; 
and power, physical, intellectual and moral ability, 
yet to do thy will in heaven, and earth, are of our 
Creator, by whom we were brought into being, and 
by whom we still live, and move, and have our ex- 
istence ; for by thee all things consist. This verse 
represents the whole universe as joining in the above 
doxology to God, and the Lamb, for their creation. 

[Unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto 
the Lamb, forever and ever] — We learn from this 
latter clause of the verse that the whole universe 
ascribe exactly the same praise to the Lamb that 
they do to Jehovah, who sitteth upon the throne. 
We have already shown that the Lamb is Jesus 
Christ. Now if Jesus Christ were not truly God, it 
would be idolatry to ascribe to him the blessing, and 
honor, and glory and power of creation, as it would 
be basely rendering unto a creature, what alone be- 
longs to the creator. But by Jesus Christ all things 
ivere created : therefore, he is God over all, blessed 
forever. Arnen. 



150 PREDICTIONS 

[Y. 14. And the four beasts said. Aruen.] — Here 
the four Beasts or governments of time, all joyfully, 
cheerfully and justly submit to the power and do- 
minion of the blessed Redeemer, and said Amen ; it 
ought to be so, it must be so, it shall be so. In the 
Laodicean age of the world, the age of the just, 
when the prediction long foretold shall be fully real- 
ized, " that the just shall live by faith," the rules of 
the Gospel faith, and not by the laws of force ; then 
there will no longer be any need of political govern- 
ments in the world. All in that age will be ready 
to submit to the law of God. the law of universal 
right, when Christ shall reign in person on the earth., 
with his saints and servants, then there will be no 
need of any other government; and therefore the 
prediction will be fulfilled, " And every creature 
which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the 
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in 
them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and 
glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the 
throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." And 
thus all the governments of earth, and all the 
creatures of time will submit, and worship him that 
liveth forever and ever. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 151 



CHAPTER VI. 

PART SECOND, PERIOD SECOND— FROM A. D. 120 TO 420. 

In this chapter the prophet gives us an account of 
the opening of the Seven Seals in their regular chro- 
nological order, and what followed thereupon, pre- 
dicting the order of events to the year A. D. 360, 
and not to the end of the world, as has been com- 
monly stated and believed. This part and period, in 
this chapter, relate to the prophecies, characters, 
actions, and events of 240 years — the time of the 
opening of the 3d, 4th, 5th and 6th seals, in the 
reign of the Pagan Roman Emperors, Domitian, 
Nerva, Adrian, the three Valenians : the thirty " pre- 
tenders ; Maximian, the gigantic Emperor ; Julian, the 
Apostate, and Dioclesian. It was in this period 
chiefly, and under these Emperors, that Christians 
suffered such severe persecutions, which commenced 
under Nero, and are known as the ten pagan perse- 
cutions, and with this period the pagan persecutions 
ended, and thus we shall find abundant coincidence 
between prophecy and history to show that the Seven 
Seals of this book are opened by the end of this 
period, A. D. 420, as we shall show in the following 
notes on this chapter. 

The Revelation properly begins with the sixth 



152 PREDICTIONS 

chapter of this book, by the opening of the Seven 
Seals, which indicate time. Every action requires 
Time ; therefore, the opening of the seals required 
time ; and, from the fulfillment, we have ascertained 
that each seal occupied sixty years. 

THE SEVEX SEALS. 

God has all the purposes, actions, and destinies of 
all men and angels, and the events of all times re- 
corded in the Book of Futurity. But no being ex- 
cept Himself has power or wisdom to open it, and 
disclose its contents ; but the Lord Jesus Christ pre- 
vails to open this Book ; therefore he is God 

EIRST SEAL— ERO.M A. D. 1 TO 60. 

The First Seal being opened, the Prophet repre- 
sents that he saw a White Horse, and he that sat c-n 
the horse had a bow, and a crown was given unto 
him ; and he went forth conquering and to conquer : 
and to subdue all to his dominion, is his ultimate 
purpose, and he will accomplish this purpose in his 
own times : for the arrows from his bow are sharp in 
the hearts of his enemies ; for his word shall prosper 
in the thing whereunto he has sent it, and shall ac- 
complish that which he pleases, and none shall dis- 
appoint him of his ultimate victory. 

White Horse is emblematic of wisdom, purity, and 
power; and signifies the power of the Gospel, in its 
wisdom, purity, and utility ; for it is profitable unto 
all, and is prevailing against all opposition. And 
this was true of the Gospel in the hands of the apos- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 158 

tolic Christians in the First Period, or up to A. D. 
60. They kept the things which were written in the 
Gospel, and trusted entirely to the King of kings. 
Therefore, they possessed a ivisdom which their 
enemies could not gainsay ; a power they could not 
resist ; and a purity above suspicion. 

SECOND SEAL— FROM A. D. 60 TO 120. 

The Second Seal being opened, the Prophet repre- 
sents that he saw a Red Horse, and he that sat on 
him, as having power to take peace from the Earth ; 
and signifies the wars and bloody persecutions on 
account of the Gospel, under the Pagan Roman 
Emperors ; which may be dated with the opening of 
this Seal, for we date at least four years too fast. 
These persecutions were on account of the Gospel 
of Christ; for, said he, "I come not to send peace 
on Earth, but a sword." Not that this was the ob- 
ject ; but it w T ould be the result. The Red Horse is 
emblematic of wickedness, war, and bloodshed. 

THIRD SEAL— FROM A. D. 120 TO 180. 

The Third Seal being opened, the Prophet repre- 
sents that he saw a Black Horse, and the rider, the 
one who controls the beast, with a pair of balances 
in his hand, and signifies that the White Horse power 
or the friends of the Gospel, were overcome by the 
Red Horse — the wars and persecutions of this period ; 
and that all the privileges and advantages of the 
Christian life and practice, though as necessary to 
their existence and happiness as corn, was measured 



154 PREDICTIONS. 

out to them during this period by the powers of dark- 
ness, error, and opposition to the Gospel. There- 
fore, the Black Horse and his rider symbolize a 
wicked, cruel, and unjust Government and Rulers. 

FOURTH SEAL— FROM A. D. 180 TO 240. 

The Fourth Seal was opened, and the Prophet 
represents that he saw a Pale Horse, and he tha,t 
sat on him was Death ; which, in a moral and' 
political sense signifies separation ; which began to 
take place under Decius, the instigator of the Seventh 
Persecution, which is said to have been the most 
dreadful ever known. The determination of these 
persecutors to extirpate Christianity from the earth, 
during this period, was as uncompromising as Death. 

These persecutions began under Nero, about A. 
D. 60, and were carried on by Domitian, Trajan, 
Antoninus, Severus, Maximinus, Decius, Valerian, 
Aurelian, and Diocletian, all monsters of vice and 
cruelty. 

Christians in all places were driven from their 
habitations ; stripped of their estates ; tormented 
with racks, fire, and wild beasts. In the last of these 
persecutions, which continued ten years, the amount 
of suffering was horrible — the loss of life almost in- 
credible. In Egypt alone, no less than 144,000 
Christians died by the cruel hand of Pagan Roman 
persecution. 

The Pale Horse is the symbol of Light and Dark- 
ness ; Truth and Error ; Idolatry and Pure Religion ; 



OF THE PROPHETS. 155 

for the Pale Horse was covered with white and black 
hair, which gave him the appearance of a pale, or 
grey horse. And it was about this time that the 
controversy, in which the respective claims of Pag- 
anism and Christianity were both publicly advo- 
cated and defended by their friends. 

FIFTH SEAL— FROM A. D. 240 TO 300. 

The Fifth Seal being opened discloses the condi- 
tion of those who have suffered martyrdom for 
Christ, under former persecutions, as well as those 
who were called to suffer for the Gospel during the 
time of the opening of this seal; showing the exist- 
ence of all true Christians in a happy condition, in 
the presence of God before the Throne ; teaching 
that the soul of the just does not sleep or die, but does 
exist in a separate state from the body: and loves, 
and remembers, and believes, and obeys, and hopes, 
until it shall return to resume its glorified body at 
the first Resurrection. And this seal is graciously 
opened for the comfort of the Church, amidst her 
conflicts, persecutions, and martyrdoms, to assure 
her that the Lord ever cares and provides for his 
people; and that death only separates us from our 
mortal sufferings, if we are his by regeneration^ that 
we may enter into our eternal home ; so shall we ever 
be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another 
with these words : for we leave an earthly tabernacle 
to enter into a heavenly mansion. 



156 PREDICTIONS 

SIXTH SEAL— FROM A, D. 300 TO 360. 

The opening of the Sixth Seal indicates the time 
of 60 years, as all the others have, and the Prophet 
represents, during this period, most awful and alarm- 
ing changes in Church and State, under the symbol 
of earthquakes ; sun darkened ; stars falling from 
heaven ; which signify the great political and ecclesi- 
astical changes, divisions, and commotions in the 
Roman Empire, which began about this period, under 
Diocletian, A. D. 292, who was the most ambitious, 
tyrannical, and cruel of all the Pagan Roman Em- 
perors. 

He divided the Roman Empire into four govern- 
ments, under four princes : two of them being emper- 
ors, each called Augustus, and two Csesars. Maxi- 
mian shared with Diocletian the title of Augustus ; 
and Galerius and Constantius were called Csesars. 
These dying or being slain, Constantine, the Great 
remained sole master for about thirty years of this 
period, of what had been the Pagan Roman Empire. 
It was in this period that the seat of Empire was re- 
moved to Constantinople. 

CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL NOTES. 

[Y. 1. And I saw when the lamb opened one of 
the seals] — The booh we have already shown to be 
the emblem of oilier ; and the opening the seals of 
the book signify the unfolding and laying open the 

divine order of events : 



OF THE PROPHETS. 157 

1. In regard to the Church and the political gov- 
ernments of the world; 

2. In regard to the developments to be made in 
nature, arts and philosophy. 

It will be our purpose to show the divine order of 
events. First, in regard to the Church and political 
governments. The voice of the first beast was like 
the noise of thunder, and in all probability was that 
of the lion, for the advent of Christ was first an- 
nounced in Judea (tl>3 land of Judah, of whom the 
lion was the emblem), by the heavenly host, in thun- 
dertones of joy, saying, Glory to God in the highest ; 
peace on earth, and good-will to men. Come and 
see! Behold we bring unto you glad tidings of 
great joy, which shall be unto all people. 

Before we proceed further with our annotations, 
we will present to the reader the principles of inter- 
pretation, which we conceive to be the standard for 
determining the import of emblematic prophecy. 

1. " The definition of prophetic symbols is to be 
found in the Bible, or to be determined by the ful- 
fillment. Where a symbol has more than one Scrip- 
tural sense, which is rarely the case, its intended 
meaning must be determined either by its context, or 
by fulfillment, or by both." 

2. " Perfect coincidence of events with prophecy, 
is infallible proof of the fulfillment of prophecy. It 
was on this principle that Jesus Christ proved him- 
self to be the true Messiah." 

14 



158 PREDICTIONS 

[V. 2. And I saw, and behold a white horse] — The 
white horse is the medium of power; the power, 
therefore, is pure, wise, warlike, swift, and useful. 
This white horse certainly represents the Gospel 
system, which is the power of God unto salvation to 
tfvery one that believeth ; to the Jew first, unto whom 
the offers of the Gospel were first made ; and also to 
the Greek, a term denoting all mankind. This mys- 
tical emblem is a most beautiful symbol of the Gospel 
system, in its purity, wisdom, aggression, swiftness, 
utility and its perfect adaptation to all the present 
and eternal wants of man. 

[And he that sat on him had a bow] — That is, he 
that hath power over, and controlled the Gospel 
system, as the rider does his horse, is Jesus Christ. 
The how is an inert power, and can only act as it is 
acted upon. The bow is the symbol of war. The 
true ministers of Jesus Christ are the bow which he 
holds in his hand; and from them his truth, like 
arrows, are darted into the hearts of sinners, the 
king's enemies ; whereby the people fall under Christ, 
the conqueror, and through the preaching of the 
Gospel become obedient subjects of his kingdom. 

We are told that Joseph's bow abode in strength. 
A bow, is, then, the symbol of both righteousness 
and war. Therefore we may justly conclude that the 
boiv here, represents the righteous war which Jesus 
Christ is waging against all ungodliness and unright- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 159 

eousness of men, to the intent to overthrow what- 
ever things are wrong. 

[And a crown was given unto him] — The symbol 
of the glorious kingdom which Jesus Christ is to es- 
tablish in the world, when all other kingdoms are 
overthrown. 

[And he went forth conquering] — Every action re- 
quires time, however swiftly it may be performed ; 
and the white horse and he that sat upon him and 
directed his movements, may have seemed to occupy 
but a moment in the prophetic panorama, and then 
gave place to the opening of the second seal. I 
conceive that the actual time occupied in the accom- 
plishment of the period of the first seal is sixty 
years — equal to one third of a prophetic half time, 
one hundred and eighty years; or, one sixth of a 
prophetic time, three hundred and sixty years. The 
first six seals occupy six prophetic days, or a secular 
week of prophetic labor; while the seventh seal, like 
its sacred symbol, is a period of rest by the space 
of half an hour, and serves to usher in the new 
week, the period in which the seven trumpets are 
sounded. 

The opening of the first seal brings us down to 
A. D., 60, as we have already intimated, and began 
with the advent of Jesus Christ, the most important 
event in its consequences, which has ever interested 
the human race since the creation, or ever will till 
the final resurrection and restoration* of all things 



160 PREDICTIONS 

at his second advent. The ivhite Jiorse, and he that 
sat upon him, went forth in the days of his incarna- 
tion, conquering, overcoming and confounding the 
Jews first, and then the Greeks ; diffusing more and 
more the light, and power, and comfort of his own 
everlasting Gospel, until his resurrection and heav- 
enly ascension. And then on the day of Pentecost, 
his disciples were indued with power from on high, 
and in the strong language of inspiration, were 
filled with the Holy Ghost, and went forth conquer- 
ing, and fully commissioned to go into all the world, 
and conquer, overcome and overthrow whatever op- 
posed the spread of his Gospel, and the establish- 
ment of his kingdom. 

[V. 3. And when he had opened the second seal, 
I heard the second beast say, Come and see !] — At 
the opening of the first seal, the lion, emblem of 
rulers in all religious and political governments, was 
awakened to watchfulness, on account of the new re- 
ligion and governments, symbolized by the white 
horse and his rider. 

At the opening of the second seal, the calf or ox, 
the symbol of subjects, or those that are ruled in all 
parts of the world, were so awakened by the glad 
tidings of great joy, which was brought to them 
through the Gospel, that the multitudes were ready 
to say, Come and see ! come and observe what things 
the Lord of this new religion has done for us ; " for 
he hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.'"' 



OF THE PROPHETS. 161 

" Unaided by those external circumstances which 
give splendor and dignity to opinions hitherto unre- 
ceived or unknown, the establishment of Christianity 
can only be primarily ascribed to the intervention of 
an overruling Providence, and to the forcible and sat- 
factory nature of that evidence, which proves the au- 
thenticity of the Christian Revelation. 

" The pure doctrines of the Gospel were at first 
propagated by men who were indigent, illiterate, and 
selected from the lowest class of mankind. As the 
constant companions of their Divine Master, they 
were, indeed, indubitable witnesses of the virtue of 
his life, of the purity of his doctrines, and of the 
stupendous miracles which he wrought. But they 
were utterly incapable of decorating their accounts 
with studied diction, of enforcing them by the author- 
ity of superior rank, or of enriching them with the 
treasures of human learning and eloquence. 

" This system, so pure, so perfect, and so opposite 
to the corruption and depravity which, at the time 
of Christ's appearance upon earth, everywhere pre- 
vailed, addressed itself, not to the passions, but to 
the understandings of mankind; and the simple ma- 
jesty of reason and truth, accompanied and applied 
by the Holy Ghost, triumphed over all the opposition 
of prejudice and the errors of ages." 

[V. 4. And there went out another horse that 
was red] — The red horse is the symbol of wicked- 
ness, wars, and especially of the bloody persecutions 



162 PREDICTIONS 

which began about the year of our Lord 60 to 64, 
under Nero, when the blood of so many faithful 
martyrs was shed for the name of Christ, that the 
Roman secular power was justly symbolized by a 
red horse. The persecution commenced under Nero, 
was repeated with more or less violence under other 
Roman emperors, down to the days of Constantine, 
thus continuing more than two hundred years. The 
suffering and loss of life which were the consequence 
exceed calculation. 

[And power was given to him that sat thereon to 
take peace from the earth] — He that sat upon this 
red horse is the executive of the civil power, the em- 
peror, who holds the reins of government, and 
guides and directs it as one does a horse. The true 
sense of this passage is to be found under the emblem 
used in the text. The white horse, the Gospel, is a 
system of peace. He that sat thereon is called the 
Prince of Peace. His religion, imparted to the soul, 
is the means of purity said peace; of it he says, My 
peace I give unto you. Then the Gospel is peace ; 
and to take peace from the earth, was to extirpate the 
Gospel by destroying its confessors. 

Whatever remained of the doctrines and practices 
of purity and peace, either in the Jewish, or Chris- 
tian religion, was about this time attempted to be 
overthrown. A few quotations from Church History 
will satisfy the reader of the correctness of our ob- 
servation on this subject : 



OF THE PROPHETS. 163 

"Beside the countenance which was derived to 
Christianity from the actions, precepts, and zeal of 
its first teachers, the virtues of the primitive Chris- 
tians afforded a powerful support to the doctrines 
they professed, and formed a striking contrast to 
the depravity and corruption which almost univer- 
sally prevailed. Nor were the opposition and perse- 
cution they met with prejudicial to their cause. They 
only served to unite more firmly this small, but in- 
trepid band, well convinced of the importance of 
those truths for which they contended, and to attract 
the notice and compassion of all mankind toward a 
sect distinguished for its singularity and virtue. 
Their implacable enemies, the unbelieving. Jews, who 
saw their own lofty claims to superiority, and their 
profligate conduct directly attacked and censured 
both by the tenets and manners of the teachers of 
Christianity, assaulted them everywhere with unre- 
lenting fury. Their rancor and animosity, however, 
toward the Christians only rendered the accomplish- 
ment of those terrible predictions which had been 
denounced against them by Jesus Christ, more ap- 
parent and remarkable, and, by these means, rather 
accelerated than retarded the progress of Christian- 
ity." 

[And that they should kill one another] — It is 
worthy of remark, that these ten Pagan persecutions, 
which began and were carried on under Nero, Do- 
mitian, Trajan, Antoninus, Severus, Maximums, De- 



164 PREDICTIONS 

cius, Valerian, Aurelian, and Diocletian, were for 
the purpose of extirpating Christianity from the 
earth, as well as its prototype, the pure doctrines of 
the Jewish prophets ; and in order to this, a man's 
enemies must have been those of his own house. The 
subjects of the same kingdom or empire were set to 
hill one another. This was true of the Jews as well 
as the Christians. The emperor of Rome caused his 
own subjects to kill one another, when he made war 
against and destroyed the Jews. So these emperors 
caused their own subjects to kill one another, when 
they persecuted the Christians to death. This state 
of things, however, is not much to be wondered at; 
for after Rome became an empire under Augustus, 
its sovereigns for the most part, and especially the 
above ten, were monsters of vice and cruelty. As a 
few of the persecuting emperors were esteemed virtu- 
ous men, who lived during these ten persecutions, it 
must be attributed, partly to the form of the Roman 
government, but chiefly to the opposition of the hu- 
man heart, to the religion of Jesus Christ, that such 
dreadful persecutions were wag^d against these un- 
offending Christians. But their sufferings, the capri- 
cious tortures they endured, and the various forms 
of death which they underwent, need not here be 
described. Christians were, in all places of the Ro- 
man empire, driven from their habitations, stripped 
of their estates, and tormented to death with racks, 
fire, and sword. 



OF THE "PROPHETS. 165 

[V. 4. And there was given unto him a great 
sword] — The sword is the symbol of regal power, and 
implies, in this case, that the executive of the Roman 
government would use its power, to a very great ex- 
tent, in causing one part of its subjects to destroy 
the other. A few more quotations from Church 
History of the first century will satisfy the reader 
that this is true, both in regard to the Jews and 
Christians, as Roman subjects. 

1. We shall notice what befell the Jews, about now, 
during the opening of the second seal : 

" Great indeed were the ojjpressions which the 
Jews experienced from a corrupt government ; and 
provoked to fury by its rapacity and violence, in the 
year 6Q, A. C, they commenced hostilities against 
the Romans, and the flames of war raged throughout 
Asia, to Egypt and the East. Under the reign of 
Vespasian, Jerusalem was besieged for six months 
by his son Titus; during which time many of the 
previous signs and portents which had been foretold 
concerning the destruction of the temple and nation, 
had already taken place ; and every calamity that can 
accompany war, that most afflictive of the divine vis- 
itations, was endured by the miserable inhabitants. 
The city and temple were at length taken by storm ; 
the emperor would have saved the body of the tem- 
ple, but a soldier set fire to an adjoining building, 
and the whole of it, which was combustible, was con- 
sumed; and according to the prediction of Jesus 
15 



166 PREDICTIONS 

Christ, about forty years previous, its walls were lev- 
eled to the ground, ' and not one stone was left upon 
another/ and the very foundations ploughed in search 
of hidden treasures." 

2. We shall notice what befell Christians, and the 
cause of their persecutions, during the opening of the 
second seal, from A. D. 60 to A. D. 120. 

" Though the absurdities of Polytheism were openly 
derided and exposed by the first teachers of Christi- 
anity, (see Acts xix, 26,) yet it does not appear that 
any public laws were enacted against Christians, till 
the reign of Nero, in the year 64, by which time it 
had acquired considerable stability and extent ; for it 
had already been preached under the whole heaven 
by the devoted and inspired apostles of our Lord, 
and their faithful cotemporaries, and humble succes- 
sors in the Christian ministry. 

" As much the greater number of the first converts 
to Christianity were of the Jewish nation, one sec- 
ondary cause for their being so long preserved from 
persecution, may probably be deduced from their 
appearing to the Roman governors only as a sect of 
the Jews, who had seceded from the rest of their 
brethren on account of some opinion, trifling in its 
importance, and perhaps difficult to be understood. 
Nor when their brethren were fully discovered to 
have cast off the religion of the synagogue, did the 
Jews find it easy to infuse into the breasts of the 
Roman magistrates that rancor and malice which 



i 



OF THE PROPHETS. 167 

they themselves experienced. But the steady and 
uniform opposition made by Christians to heathen 
superstition, could not long pass unnoticed. Their 
open attacks upon Paganism made them extremely 
obnoxious to the populace, by whom they were rep- 
resented as a society of atheists, who, by attacking 
the religious constitution of the country, merited the 
severest animadversion of the civil magistrate." 

" Alternate seasons of tranquillity and persecution 
succeeded this barbarous attempt to extirpate Chris- 
tianity by destroying its confessors. That which 
was designed to overthrow Christianity was over- 
ruled by its author, for the furtherance of its pure, 
peaceful and heavenly principles, and thus uniting 
the Christians more firmly in one common cause, and 
giving them time to recruit their wearied powers, 
proved extremely favorable to the support and pro- 
pagation of the Gospel. From the death of Nero 
to the reign of Domitian the Christians remained 
unmolested, and their numbers increased daily. But 
toward the close of the first century, they were again 
involved in all the horror of bloody persecution. 
The death of the Domitian, however, delivered them 
from this calamity, and his successor Nerva suffered 
the Christian Church to enjoy a season of tranquil- 
lity, and wisely annulled the sanguinary edicts of his 
predecessors." 

The records of time do not afford another case in 
which the coincidence between prophecy and history 



168 PREDICTIONS 

more fully concur to show that the period, which we 
assign for the opening of the second seal, is the true 
period, from A. D., 60 to 120; and that the prophetic 
declarations of the text were literally fulfilled ; for 
there never was a time of which it may be so truly 
said, the red horse and his rider, a bloody, persecut- 
ing power, went forth to take peace, pure and peace- 
able religion from the earth ; and that one part of 
the subjects of this government killed the other — 
the unoffending and non-resisting — and with a great 
sword; a dreadful, horrible destruction; for the 
sword was bathed in the blood of the saints, and 
was made drunken by that of the martyrs. 

[Y. 5. And when he had opened the third seal, I 
heard the third beast say, Come and see !] — This is 
the beast that had a face as a man, in all his primeval 
rectitude of form and character, and we must now 
expect to see by the opening of this seal, what man 
is when left to himself, amid the conflicting scenes 
of time and sense. We have already seen that the 
white horse seemed to fail under the power of the 
red horse and his rider: and the black horse, the 
very opposite of the white horse, takes the place of 
both, and has all his own way. The white horse and 
his rider, though trampled down by persecution, will 
yet triumph, for even the gates of hell shall not pre- 
vail against them. The time occupied in the open- 
ing of this seal is sixty years, from A. D.. 120 to 
180. We shall now proceed to notice the coincid- 






OF THE PROPHETS. 169 

ence between the declarations of the prophecy and 
the records of history pertaining to this period. 

[And I beheld, and lo, a black horse] — Black is 
the emblem of darkness, error and cruelty. " Men 
love darkness rather than light." " God is light, 
and in him is no darkness at all." And the entrance 
of his ivord giveth light. What God has spoken to 
mankind by his prophets and apostles was written 
for our learning, and the rule of our actions, and the 
comfort of our hearts. The governments or rulers 
of this world are designated as the powers of dark- 
ness, and their laws and maxims in many things are 
opposed to the divine government, and hence such a 
system is symbolized by a black horse. 

[And he that sat on him had a pair of balances in 
his hand] — He that guided in the affairs of govern- 
ment, sat on the beast or at the helm of state and 
directed the course of events, as the rider does his 
horse, was the executive of the Roman empire. 
Bahmces have been used from time immemorial as 
the symbol of strict justice, although political gov- 
ernment originated in man's depravity and rebellion 
against God, and is therefore an invasion of divine 
right ; yet they have claimed, that it was their one 
purpose to mete out equal justice to all, and God 
will utterly overthrow all governments that do not 
faithfully act on this principle. And we shall no- 
tice during the opening of the third seal, that under 
the watchful eye of Divine Providence equal justice 



170 PREDICTIONS 

was attempted throughout the Roman empire to all 
classes of subjects. 

" The conduct of the Roman emperors toward the 
Christians in the second century, though sometimes 
harsh and cruel, yet upon the whole was just and 
tolerant. The decrees of Trajan respecting them 
were softened by the counsels and influence of the 
mild and beneficent Pliny. Their enemies were for- 
bidden to produce any anonymous accusations against 
them, and they were left at liberty to retire from ob- 
servation to attend to the rites and administer the 
ordinances of Christianity. Under this just and 
generous state of affairs the number of Gentile 
converts was greatly augmented, and the Christian 
Church was established in very remote parts of the 
Roman empire." 

To give the reader some idea of the extent of the 
Roman empire at this period, if there are any not 
already informed, we submit a quotation from "Blair's 
Outlines of Chronology." 

" The emperor Trajan, after having obtained a 
complete victory over Dacia, which became a Ro- 
man" province, then turned his arms eastward, and 
speedily reduced Mesopotamia, Chaldea and Assyria, 
and took Ctesaphon, the capital of the Parthian em- 
pire. Still pursuing his conquests in the east, he 
subdued nations till then unknown to the west ; and 
it is reported, that arriving at the confines of India, 
' he lamented, with a sigh, that his advanced age 



OF THE PROPHETS. 171 

scarcely left him any hopes of equaling the renown 
of the son of Philip.' 

" But such was the corruption of the times, it be- 
came impossible that so mighty a structure as the 
Roman empire could be preserved from falling 
asunder. At the period of Trajan's death, it com- 
prehended the provinces already enumerated in the 
east, and extended its scepter over the greater part 
of Briton, all Spain, France, the Netherlands, Ger- 
many, Italy, Egypt, Barbary, part of Arabia, Tur- 
key in Europe and Asia, and Persia. The empire, 
however, was exhausted by its belligerent exertions, 
and although it maintained the appearance of power, 
yet from this time it was but little more than a 
splendid ruin." 

[V. 6. And I heard a voice in the midst of the 
four beasts] — This voice evidently came from him 
that sat upon the throne, as we are informed in 
Chapter IV ; and is authoritative, as it is the voice 
of the Ruler of rulers. This is the voice of infinite 
Wisdom, instructing the rulers of this world how to 
administer justice, and maintain unanimity and sub- 
ordination among their subjects. 

[A measure of wheat for a penny] — The word 
which we translate a measure, is called a choenix, an 
ancient Greek measure for things dry, being the 48th 
part of a mediums, consequently equal to the 8th 
part of a Roman modius, or the 8th part of our 
common peck, and nearly equal to about one quart, 



172 PREDICTIONS 

being considered a sufficient daily allowance for one 
man. The same measure is used for the barley men- 
tioned in this verse. 

There is a great moral in regard to political econ- 
omy, underlaying the imperative counsel of the text. 
It teaches rulers that they should be just to their 
subjects in things small, as well as great ; in measure 
and in weights, for he that is just in that which is 
little, will be just in much; but he that is unjust in 
that which is little, will be unjust in that which is 
great. Laws must be enacted to regulate these little 
things, and enforced to prevent monopolies, and re- 
strain one part of the subjects of the government 
from extorting unjust prices from the other, for 
things which are necessary to life, and result from 
the providence of God, on ordinary labor, such as 
growing corn, wheat, barley, olives and vines, etc. 
The divine counsel is a measure of wheat for a penny, 
and three measures of barley for a penny, giving 
the wheat as a standard value, and the barley its 
proportionate value. 

It is but little each subject needs, yet he must be 
be provided for, or assisted to provide this little on 
just terms, and be protected in his provisions for the 
necessaries of life. Laws should also prohibit the 
improper waste or injurious use of things, for any 
other than the purpose for which the Creator in- 
tended — that is, for food for man and beast. The 
government should prevent, by salutary enactments, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 173 

its subjects from cultivating the earth to produce 
things which were injurious. 

If men engaged in agriculture would cease to raise 
the useless weed, tobacco, and in its stead grow 
wheat, or other grain, for food for man and beast, 
and not to distil, there never would be any breaking 
out of mobs for food, or complaining in our streets 
for hunger. Then wheat might be well afforded at 
a measure for a penny, which would be equal to 50 
cents per bushel, which the Author of seed time and 
harvest sets down as the standard value. 

[And see thou hurt not the oil and the wine] — Do 
not pervert these from their proper use, for every 
creature of God is good when used for the purpose 
for which it was given. But oil, the emblem of rich, 
nutricious food, must not be used to gluttony ; nor 
must wine, the emblem of joy and gladness, be used 
to drunkenness ; but observe temperance of body and 
sobriety of mind. 

See, ye rulers of the nations, that you do nothing 
injurious to my Gospel, which is compared to oint- 
ment poured forth ; it is the olive branch of peace 
sent forth to the nations. Injure not the wine ; shed 
not the blood of my people : I am the true vine ; my 
people are the branches and the fruit ; for I will not 
hold him guiltless that sheds the " Wine of Life?' 
See that all your subjects are only engaged in some 
useful employment to promote the life, comfort, 
peace, and happiness of the commonwealth. It is 



174 PREDICTIONS 

worthy of remark, that almost every insurrection of 
the nations, or act of insubordination, has been on 
account of oppressive injustice in regard to food and 
nutritious drink. Supply these at a cheap and just 
rate, and all will be peaceful and prosperous, in all 
the kingdoms of the world. 

These terms, oil and wine, are used by metonymy 
for their cause, the olive and the vine; and the words 
have a meaning still more forcible ; and the divine 
injunction may be thus paraphrased : " I say a 
measure of wheat can be afforded for a penny, and 
three measures of barley for a penny, and other 
things proportionate, if you will faithfully protect 
the peaceful and fruitful producers of these things." 

[V. 7. And when he had opened the fourth seal, 
I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and 
see] — This is to be understood as the voice of the 
beast which had the face or character of the eagle. 
Come and see what will transpire, as indicated by the 
following emblems, during the opening of the fourth 
seal. 

[V. 8. And I looked, and behold a pale horse !] — 
The pale horse is emblematic of the state of the po- 
litical government of the Roman empire, during the 
period of opening the fourth seal, from A. D. 180 to 
240, a period of sixty years. This symbol implies, 
that the government is neither Christian nor Pagan ; 
that neither Christianity nor Paganism fully prevails ; 
that there is a contention between them ; and this is 



OF THE PROPHETS. 175 

precisely the state of things as indicated by the his- 
tory of the times. A single quotation from History 
of the Church, Cent. Ill, will satisfy the reader that 
this view is certainly correct. 

" Among several causes favorable to the diffusion 
of Christianity, we are, perhaps, not a little indebted 
to the quick succession of the Roman emperors. The 
events attending their lives, their deaths, and the 
artifices of their successors to obtain the imperial 
purple, naturally engaged much of the public atten- 
tion, and suspended the execution of those sanguin- 
ary edicts intended for the destruction of the Chris- 
tians. Several among the masters of the Roman 
world were also unconnected with their predecessors, 
unbiased by their prejudices, and averse to their pur- 
suits." 

It would seem from this symbol, that during this 
period, the white horse, or Christianity, stood upon 
equal footing with the black horse, or political Pa- 
ganism. 

" But this degree of peace, precarious as it was, 
and frequently interrupted by the partial execution 
of severe laws, was terminated by an edict, which pro- 
hibited every subject of the empire of Rome, under 
severe penalties, from embracing the Jewish or Chris- 
tian faith." And hence, with great propriety, the 
executive of the Roman empire, who sits upon his 
pale horse — part white and part black — is, by me- 
tonymy, called Death. 



176 PREDICTIONS 

[And his name that sat on him was Death, and 
hell followed with him] — Death, the effect of the se- 
vere laws of the Roman executive, is put by me- 
tonymy, for its cause; and the term " hades" or 
hell, is also put, by metonymy, for its prince or 
subjects; for the gates of hell, or powers of darkness, 
were combined with the executive of Rome to destroy 
Christianity, at this period. 

[And power was given unto them over the fourth 
part of the earth] — It is worthy of remark, that if 
we look upon the Eastern hemisphere as being the 
earth known to these people to whom this Revela- 
tion was at first sent, it will at once be seen that the 
persecutions of this period were confined to the Ro- 
man empire, which embraced the North-west fourth 
of the earth. 

"This law, which prohibited every subject of the 
Roman empire, under severe penalties, from embrac- 
ing the Jewish or Christian faith, appears, upon a 
first view, designed merely to impede the farther 
progress of Christianity. But it incited the magis- 
tracy to enforce the laws of former emperors, which 
were still existing against Christians ; and during 
seven years they were exposed to a rigorous perse- 
cution in Palestine, Egypt, the rest of northern 
Africa, Italy, Gaul, and the other parts of the em- 
pire," which, we have already shown, comprised the 
countries of ancient, and now modern, Europe. " In 
this persecution Leonides, the father of Origen, and 



OF THE PROPHETS. 177 

Irenseus, bishop of Lyons, suffered persecution and 
martyrdom. On this occasion Tertullian composed 
his ■ Apology.'* " The four great scourges which, 
under political government, incited by the prince of 
Hades, have devasted the human race, are used with 
a vengeance during this period of persecution. The 
sword, hunger, wild beasts and Death, are put, by 
metonymy, for War, Famine, Pestilence ; and these 
are the methods by which Christians perished, dur- 
ing the opening of this seal. 

[V. 9. And when he had opened the fifth seal] — 
The opening of this seal, like all before it, compre- 
hends a period of sixty years, from A. D. 240 to 300. 
Everything goes on during this period as during the 
time of the fourth seal. The fifth seal is loosed, the 
book lies open before us, and thus we have turned 
five leaves of the book Futurity — a book that none 
but God can know, and whose contents none but 
God can reveal, or those whom he may inspire for 
that purpose. 

[I saw under the altar] — The preposition which 
we translate under, is often used to denote near to, 
at, or about ; therefore we may say that St. John 
saw the souls of the martyrs about the altar before 
the throne in heaven. 

[The souls of them that were slain for the word of 
God, and for the testimony which they held] — The 
opening of this seal brings more fully to light than 
ever before the glorious and all-encouraging doc- 



178 PREDICTIONS 

trine of the separate existence of the soul, or spirit, 
of man in a conscious state of being, from the day 
of death when it leaves the body until the resurrec- 
tion. We are told by the Revelator, that he saw the 
souls round about the altar, which were slain for 
their attachment to the word of God and their testi- 
mony for Jesus Christ. They were disembodied 
souls, but the spiritual form, was, in all probability, 
the very same figure of the clay tabernacle which it 
ha^ l°ft. He saw them, and therefore they must have 
had a form, color, and divisibility, yet -all spiritual, 
and their mode of operation not fully comprehended 
by us in our present state of existence. No doubt 
when the soul leaves the body, it takes up its abode 
in a spiritual body, instantly prepared for it by the 
miraculous power of Grod, having all the appearance 
of a perfect human body. 

[Y. 10. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, 
How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not 
judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on 
the earth] — St. John was an e?/e-witness of these 
souls ; now he hears them call with a loud voice. 
This is still further evidence of the organized state 
of conscious existence among the souls of those who 
have passed away from the bodies on earth and are 
present in the spiritual body with the Lord. They 
remember times and surroundings, men and things, 
and characters and attributes. 

The period of the fifth seal was, for the most part, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 179 

a continuous scene of persecution, as a single quo- 
tation will show : 

" The accession of Decius to the imperial throne 
fatally terminated that state of equality and peace 
which had existed under his predecessor; and during 
his short reign the Christians were exposed to greater 
calamities than any they had hitherto suffered. 
Great numbers were publicly destroyed; several 
purchased safety by bribes, or secured it by flight ; 
and many deserted the faith, and willingly consented 
to burn incense on the altar of the Pagan gods. The 
city of Alexandria in Egypt, the great theater of 
persecution during this period, had even anticipated 
the edicts of the emperor, and had put to death a 
great number of innocent persons, both men and 
women, in &. D. 249. 

" The first years of Valerian were favorable to the 
Christians. But the emperor was afterward made 
the dupe of Marcinus, a magician ; and in the year 
257, issued severe edicts against the Christians, and 
great numbers were sacrificed, in different modes, to 
the demon persecution. Some were scourged to 
death; some burned; many perished by the sword; 
some were starved to death, and others were torn to 
pieces by wild beasts ; and others were tortured, not 
accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better 
resurrection." That is to say, a part in the first re- 
surrection ; on whom the second death hath no 



180 PREDICTIONS 

power ; and they shall reign with Christ on the 
earth, during his Millennial kingdom. 

[V. 11. White robes were given unto every one 
of them] — Every faithful martyr, as well as every 
truly converted Christian, is worthy to walk with 
Christ in Mite robes, the symbol of their purity and 
innocence, and the glorious protection and happiness 
of the heavenly inheritance of the saints. 

[And it was said unto them, that they should rest 
yet for a little season] — And it was but a little 
season until the cup of the iniquity of their Roman 
persecutors was full ; for under the sixth seal God 
did judge and avenge their blood, life, honor and 
property upon the earth — the Roman Empire. And 
that the martyrs had a little season of rest, accord- 
ing to the divine promise, is evident from Church 
History, Cent. III. " In 260, Valerian was taken 
prisoner by the Persians, and from that period the 
tranquillity of the Church was scarcely interrupted 
during the remainder of the century." ; This histori- 
cal fact brings us to the end of the period of the 
fifth seal, and the commencement of the opening of 
the sixth seal, when the cup of Pagan Rome was 
full, and they had fulfilled their purpose, as permitted, 
against the Christians. 

[V. 12. And I beheld when he had opened the 
sixth seal, and lo ! there was a great earthquake] — 
It is well to watch the ways of Providence as indi- 
cated in the Book of Prophecy, and we shall see the 



OF THE PROPHETS. 181 

holiness of his character ; the unerring certainty of 
all his promises ; the truthfulness of his threatenings ; 
and the strict justice of the divine government. 

[A great earthquake] — This seal began to be 
opened about A. D., 800, and the events which are 
symbolized thereby occurred in the course of the 
folloAving sixty years; so that the events of these 
seals comprehend and complete a prophetic time, 
three hundred and sixty years, or a perfect year of 
years, and may be looked upon as a grand symbol 
of the great circle of years which is to usher in the 
great earthquake, which is to overthrow the kingdoms 
of this world and bring in the grand Sabbatic time, 
the Millennial jubilee. 

Earth, when used in a figurative sense in this Rev- 
elation, has reference to political governments ; and 
therefore an earthquake signifies shocking, astonish- 
ing and overwhelming changes in political govern- 
ments. The whole Roman empire was shocked and 
shaken as by an earthquake, during the opening of 
this sixth seal. We quote again from History of the 
Church, Cent. IY : 

" The events of the fourth century hold a distin- 
guished rank in the annals of the Christian faith. 
During this period the truths of the Gospel were 
publicly received and professed by a succession of 
the great masters of the Roman world. Christian- 
ity became the established religion of the empire ; 
and, in consequence of the contest between the Or- 
16 



182 PREDICTIONS 

thodox ana Arian parties, the primitive faith of the 
Church was nicely and accurately ascertained, and 
delivered to posterity in precise and definite terms. 
The Christian professor was expected to conform to 
these rules, or relinquish his title of an Orthodox 
believer in Christ." 

This was certainly a shocking and astonishing 
change among the great ones of the earth. But 
again we notice the great political changes of this 
period : 

" The toleration of Christianity, through the Ro- 
man empire, took place under Constantine the Great, 
about A. D., 300 to 306. The public persecutions 
of the Christians then ceased. Thus the religion of 
the Saviour, which had stood the ordeal of ten per- 
secutions, was seen at once to prevail over the whole 
Roman empire." 

AY e will lay before the reader one more quotation 
from " Blair's Outlines of Chronology," which will 
give him some idea of the shock and sensation pro- 
duced throughout the Roman empire by this great 
political and ecclesiastical earthquake. 

" The removal of the seat of the Roman empire 
to Constantinople, anciently called Byzantium, was 
effected by Constantine 329 years A. C. The effect 
of this measure was not immediately felt ; and even 
the first sensation was not as great as might have 
been expected; but it was a measure, however, which 
shocked the foundations of the government like a 



OF THE PROPHETS. 183 

great earthquake, and hastened the downfall of the 
empire. Whatever were the motives of Constantine 
in removing the seat of empire, the step was highly 
impolitic, as it weakened, exceedingly, the already 
tottering pillars of state. After this event, Home 
never resumed any share of its former luster. 

" The new seat of empire seems to have been 
pointed out in the following manner. Constantine 
had made choice of a situation at Chalcedon, in Asia 
Minor ; but w T e are told that, in laying out the 
ground-plan, an eagle caught up the measuring line, 
and flew with it over to Byzantium, a city which lay 
upon the opposite side of the Bosphorus. 

■ Here, therefore, it was thought best to fix the 
seat of the empire ; and Constantine, after having 
built a capitol, an amphitheater, many churches, and 
other public works, and many magnificent edifices, 
then dedicated the city to the God of martyrs, and 
repaired thither with his whole court and retinue." 

From the historical facts now before us, in rela- 
tion to this period, when the Roman empire com- 
prised the history of the civilized world, it would be 
easy to appreciate the bold emblems and mystic 
symbols which are employed by the prophet in fore- 
shadowing the wonderful political and ecclesiastical 
changes, which were, like an earthquake, to shock 
and overwhelm this mighty empire. 

The Pagan Roman government, at the commence- 
ment of the Christian era, and even down to this 



184 PREDICTIONS 

period, was the sun among the kingdoms of the 
world. But by the removal of the seat of empire 
from Rome to Byzantium, which, in honor of Con- 
stantino, received the name of Constantinople, it was 
eclipsed of its former glory, darkened and degraded 
as in the dust. And the moon, the moral and eccle- 
siastical state of the same empire, instead of diffus- 
ing its borrowed rays of heavenly light to cheer and 
direct men amidst the night of time, became as 
blood ; became a bloody, persecuting power, and was 
manteled in blood instead of the robes of light. 
And the very same power which is here represented 
under the similitude of the moon, is afterward re- 
presented as dressed in scarlet, and sitting upon 
the beast, controlling and directing it. 

[V. 13. And the stars of heaven fell unto the 
earth] — Evidently means that the angels or ministers 
of the Church forsook their high and holy positions, 
and condescended to become the secular and political 
officers of the earth, a symbol of political govern- 
ment, for such governments are of the earth, earthy-, 
and they were then of no more use to the kingdom 
of Christ, whose kingdom is not of this world, than 
fallen stars would be for celestial lamps, or untimely 
fruit would be for nutritious food. And this was 
truly the state of affairs in the days of Constantine ; 
for we are told that he displaced all the Pagan offi- 
cers, and filled their place with Christians, at least 
in name and profession. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 185 

[V. 14. And the heaven departed as a scroll when 
it is rolled together] — Heaven is used here by me- 
tonymy for Christians, and they are represented as 
departing from their original purpose. They were 
no longer spread out in their amplitude, seeking the 
welfare of the world. They were no longer an open 
parchment, seen and read of all men as they went 
forth with their broad commission into all the world 
to preach glad tidings unto every creature. The 
term heaven may also be understood as the Gospel 
system, and instead of its being spread abroad be- 
fore the nations, according to the instruction of its 
Divine founder, it is rolled together as a scroll of 
heated parchment, and is completely displaced by a 
system of selfishness, worldly-mindedness and idol- 
atry ; so that it may be said every mountain, every 
one who seemed to be towering above the world, 
and pointing the way to heaven, had changed their 
relations or positions, in order to fill the places cf 
the islands, the political offices of the great sea 
of human population, and especially was this the 
case in the Roman empire in the days of Constan- 
tine. 

[V. 15. Even the kings of the earth]— All the 
secular or political officers of the empire, who had 
endeavored to extirpate Christianity by destroying 
its confessors, and to support the system of Paganism 
by their authority. 

[And the great men] — Who were looked to by 



186 PREDICTIONS. 

others of inferior rank, and had given Paganism the 
support of their influence. 

[And the rich men] — Who had given their gold 
and silver, these talents of power, for the support of 
Pagan institutions, and in opposition to the Gospel 
of Christ, rendering the things unto Caesar which 
belong to God: 

[And the chief captains] — Who had hazarded their 
lives to advance the Roman empire, and had used 
their political wisdom and military, skill to destroy 
Christ's kingdom. 

[And the mighty men] — Who possessed great 
physical power, and had used it to destroy humble 
and innocent Christians : 

[And every bondman] — Who had obeyed men 
rather than God, and had, in the service of their im- 
penitent masters, assisted in the martyrdom of the 
Christians, and was thereby guilty of innocent blood, 
which cried against them for vengeance. 

[And every freeman] — Those who had once been 
slaves, but were manumitted and usually called free- 
men on that account, and were generally attached to 
the families of their liberators afterward through 
gratitude. These, too, through a servile fear, had 
wronged their own souls, and imbued their hands 
in the martyrs' blood, which called down the ven- 
geance of God upon them. And they all hid them- 
selves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains. 

[Y. 16. And said to the mountains and rocks]— 



OF THE PKOPHETS. 187 

We are informed by history, that this prophecy was 
literally fulfilled, in the reign of Constantine, when 
the pagan religion was degraded, and its priests for- 
bidden to officiate; and all pagan officers were com- 
pelled to abandon their former places of trust and 
honor in the empire; and Christianity became the 
religion of the state, and Christians filled both the 
political and ecclesiastical offices of the empire; it 
was then the degraded incumbents fled to the moun- 
tains and desert places, and hid themselves in the 
dens and mountains, and said to the mountains and 
rocks, " Fall on us, and hide us from the face of 
him that sitteth upon the Throve" This language 
indicates that their perturbation and apprehension of 
danger were bordering on hopeless despair ; and that 
they preferred any death, whether immediate or re- 
mote, rather than that which they were anticipating 
from those whom they once persecuted, but who were 
now in power by this overwhelming revolution, this 
great earthquake. 

[And from the wrath of the Lamb] — In his human 
nature, Christ is a lamb; in his divine character, he 
is the lion, These enemies of Christ and his king- 
dom had only seen the character of the submissive 
and innocent lamb, among the almost countless num- 
ber of martyrs which had perished by their cruelty. 
But now they clearly perceive that the Almighty 
metes out the destinies of men and nations, and that 
these terrible changes in government are but a just 



188 PREDICTIONS 

judgment from him for their wickedness, and that 
Jesus Christ, the divine author of Christianity, was 
even now judging, condemning, and destroying them 
for their cruel and unjust persecution of his faithful 
followers. 

[V. 17. For the great day of his wrath is come] 
— The forebodings of a guilty conscience were so 
oppressive, that the enemies of Christ apprehended 
from the great revolutions in the Roman empire, that 
the day of judgment had commenced, and that the 
Judge would suddenly appear in person to execute 
judgment upon all the oppressors and persecutors 
of his people and despisers of his Gospel. Oppressed 
by the mental and moral agony of such forebodings, 
well might the Pagan persecutor say, " Who shall be 
able to stand f who is innocent of the great transgres- 
sion of blood-guiltiness, for blood crieth unto blood in 
every part of the empire ? who, of all the rulers of the 
Roman world, are innocent of the blood of the mar- 
tyrs? or who may stand up and contend with the mighty 
God of martyrs ?" 

Many writers have applied this prophecy to the 
day of judgment, after the final resurrection of the 
dead ; but I do not conceive that it is at all intended 
to set forth that awful and final event, otherwise than 
being a symbol, as already intimated, of that grand 
catastrophe ! 

The fall of Babylon, Idumea, Judea, Egypt, and 
Jerusalem has been described by our Lord and his 



OF THE PROPHETS. 189 

prophets in language equally bold, grand, figurative, 
and powerful. 

"Now it is certain that the fall of any of these 
cities or kingdoms was not any more important, or 
of greater consequence to the world, nor more de- 
served to be described in pompous figures, than the 
fall of the Pagan Roman empire, when the great 
lights of the Pagan world, the sun, moon, and stars, 
the powers civil and ecclesiastical, were eclipsed and 
obscured, the Pagan emperors and Csesars were slain, 
the Pagan priests and augurs were extirpated, the 
Pagan officers and magistrates were all removed, the 
Pagan temples were demolished, or consecrated for 
Christian churches, and their revenues devoted to 
better uses. It is customary with the prophets, after 
they have described a thing in the most emblematic 
and figurative manner, to represent the same again 
in plainer terms, and the same method is observed 
here, v. 15, 16, 17. Even the kings of the earth, 
etc. — That is, Maximin, Galerius, Maxentius, and 
Licinius, with all their adherents and followers, were 
so routed and dispersed, that they hid themselves in 
dens, etc. This is therefore a description of the tri- 
umph of Christ and his Church over their Pagan Ro- 
man enemies — a triumph after ten severe persecu- 
tions, so that the time and all the circumstances, as 
well as the series and order of the prophecy, agree 
perfectly with this interpretation." 

We close our remarks on this .chapter by observ- 
17 



190 PREDICTIONS 

ing that the prophecy it contains applies especially 
to the Pagan and Christian subjects of the Roman 
empire, and completes the drama in reference to 
them in the grand scene of the opening of the six 
seals, wherein the whole series of characters, actions, 
and events have been connected and exhibited in a 
period of three hundred and sixty years, or one pro- 
phetic time. The following chapter has reference to 
actions and events which belong to this same period, 
and is that part of the scene which exhibits the deal- 
ings of God toward his ancient and chosen people, 
the twelve tribes of Israel, which were scattered 
abroad throughout the Pagan Roman empire, against 
whom equally severe and persecuting edicts had 
been enacted during this period, as our quotations 
from history already show, and will more fully evince 
in the course of our Annotations 



OF THE PROPHETS. 191 



CHAPTER VII. 

PART SECOND— PERIOD SECOND— CONTINUED. 

After the visions related in the previous chapters, 
the Prophet saw four Angels standing upon the 
Earth, holding the four winds of the Earth ; and he 
saw another Angel seal the servants of God in their 
foreheads ; the number of each of the tribes of Israel 
being 144,000. Of all other nations, an innumerable 
multitude, which stand before the throne, clothed in 
white robes, and palms in their hands. 

THE FOUR ANGELS. 

Four Angels stand upon the Four corners of the 
Earth, holding the Four Winds. This is emblematic 
of the divided state of the Roman Empire, into four 
parts, by Diocletian, as above noticed. 

Ten dreadful storms of persecution had passed 
over the empire, like a desolating scourge from the 
Gates of Hell, and left it in a divided and enfeebled 
condition. 

The Church has a little rest about the first of this 
period, represented by the sealing of 144,000 with 
the Seal of the living God, which signifies that great 
numbers believed the Gospel and openly professed 
and practiced Christianity : and hence, received the 
Visible Seal of the Christian religion, as instituted, 
by Christ in the Gospel. One may ask, What was 



192 PREDICTIONS 

this Visible Seal ? We answer, T vYater Baptism. 
Where was the seal applied ? In the forehead. Of 
what was it the sign? The Baptism, or pouring out 
of the Holy Spirit; which is the only saving Bap- 
tism — the one Baptism. As a Seal what did it sig- 
nify ? The sealing by the Holy Ghost, by which all 
true believers are sealed unto the day of Redemp- 
tion, and purified by the washing of Regeneration. 
Circumcision was the seal of the Jewish, and bap- 
tism of the Christian Church. 

CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL XOTES. 

TY. 1. And after these things I saw four Angels] — 
After the prophet had beheld the visions of the six 
seals, in regard to Pagans and Christians of the Ro- 
man empire, he was permitted to see a vision con- 
cerning the Twelve Tribes of Israel, The actions 
and events of this vision do not appear to be con- 
fined to any one of the seals, but to have transpired 
during the three hundred and sixty years, the period 
of the opening of all the past six of them, from A. 
D. 1 to 360. 

The prophet saw four angels, agents, or messengers, 
of the divine government, standing upon the four 
corners of the earth. It may be, that an angel attends 
every man ; and, indeed, the doctrine is clearly taught 
and implied in many passages of the Old and Xew 
Testaments. Moreover, it was an ancient tradition, 
and has come down to our times, that a good and 
bad angel attends every one. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 198 

These four angels, in my opinion, were the four 
princes who ruled the Roman empire at the same 
time, and held the four winds, the nations, in check. 
So that the earth, political government, should no 
longer be disturbed by the storms of persecution ; 
that the sea, the Church, which held good and bad 
fish, should not be tossed hj contrary winds of doe- 
tj'ine, and that the Gospel system, which is elsewhere 
compared by its divine founder to a grain of mustard 
seed, which became a great tree, should not be de- 
stroyed by angry storms of malice from its enemies, 
nor its fruit untimely wasted by mighty winds of 
political persecutions; but that there should be a 
great calm, and everything made to subserve the 
purposes of the divine government. The last of the 
ten pagan persecutions took place under Diocletian, 
after which Christians were fully tolerated through- 
out the Roman empire for more than half a century. 

" The partition of the Roman empire by Diocle- 
tian is dated 292 A. C. He divided it into four gov- 
ernments, under as many princes, two of them being 
emperors, each called Augustus, and two Caesars. 
Thus a new system of Administration was formed, 
though it did not long continue. Maximin shared, 
with Diocletian, the title of Augustus ; and Galerius 
and Constantinus were declared Caesars, and all were 
nominally supreme." 

Thus a mutual check was held upon each other ; 
and Jews and Christians, who felt little or no in- 



194 PREDICTIONS 

terest in political affairs, had the unmolested privi- 
lege of attending to the duties of their religion. 

[V. 2. And I saw another angel ascending from 
the east] — The term east, in my opinion, is to be 
understood as a symbol of Christ, who is called, by 
St. Simeon, the Day Spring, the Rising Sun, or East. 
Luke i: 78. And this angel seems to be a special 
angel, sent by Christ as his chancellor, charged with 
the most weighty and important interests of the Su- 
preme King, and to set in order and give unques- 
tionable authority to all the officers of the supreme 
government. His ascending from the east, implies 
his arising from among Christians and increasing in 
power, majesty and glory, as the sun, shining more 
and more until the perfect day. 

This angel is evidently a symbol of the Gospel or 
angel spoken of; and it, in my opinion, is the agent 
by which the Holy Ghost seals all the servants of 
God ; for the Gospel is called the power of God, and 
sword of the Spirit, by which we are made to submit 
to the divine government, and become subjects of the 
heavenly kingdom ; and are sealed and sanctified, 
and acknowledged the heirs and joint heirs with 
Christ to the heavenly inheritance. 

[Having the seal of the living God] — Having the 
seal or sign by which he was to seal or consecrate 
the servants of the true and living God, that they 
might be distinguished from those who are not his 
servants, but addicted to Idolatry, and therefore the 



OF THE PROPHETS. 195 

servants of dead gods. We are told that the "foun- 
dation of God standeth sure, having this seal" or the 
seal by which he knows who are his. Christ is the 
foundation of God, for he is God — Immanuel, God 
with us — God manifest or made known in human 
form. This I look upon as being the spiritual and 
primary sense of the passage before us. 

But in a material or political sense, I consider 
that Constantine the Great is the angel ascending 
from the east, for reasons already given, and others 
which are submitted. The extraordinary pains taken 
by Constantine for the propagation of evangelical 
truth, were attended with uncommon success. It 
can not be doubted but a multitude of nominal pro- 
fessors, influenced by the example and authority of 
the emperor, would enter into the Church. But its 
doctrines and institutions were extended to remote 
nations, and they received at least its visible seal 
and sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

" The benignant influence of the mild and equi- 
table doctrines of the Gospel upon the happiness of 
mankind, must have been strikingly evinced by the 
Christian world during this century. That humane 
and equitable dispensation which provided for the 
happiness of all mankind, breathed its spirit into the 
laws of Constantine. Many of the evils, and much 
of the duration of slavery, were abolished by that 
monarch, who also softened the rigor of corporeal 
punishments, prohibited sanguinary and ferocious 



196 PREDICTIONS 

shows and contests from the people; prevented op- 
pression and provided for the poor; restrained the 
licentiousness of divorces, and the custom of exorbi- 
tant interest for money. Whatever were the corrup- 
tions which had been introduced into Christianity in 
reference to doctrine, the professors of the Gospel 
were still distinguished by their peculiar virtue, and 
in the famine, in the days of Maximin, were re- 
markable for exertions of compassion and charity 
unknown to the votaries of Paganism."' 

Thus, through Constantine, the care of Christ for 
his Gospel and people is clearly seen, and his voice 
is heard in unmistakable language, to the four an- 
gels, agents, or governments, which were in the 
Roman empire, saying, " Hurt not the earth,'' dis- 
turb not the affairs of state ; " neither the sea," the 
members of the Church; "nor the trees,'' the sys- 
tems of religion, until we have given all a fair 
chance, by setting good and evil before them, to 
choose the living God and his service, or to choose 
Idolatry, and suffer the dire consequences. 

[Y. 3. Till we have sealed the servants of our God 
in their foreheads] — Till we, the ministers of the 
Christian system, have applied the visible seal of the 
Christian dispensation to all who have made, or may 
make, the good confession before many witnesses, 
and covenant, by this transaction, to become the 
faithful servants of the ' ; Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." 



OF THE PROPHETS. 197 

By receiving the seal of the living God in the 
forehead, we understand that the persons were more 
fully consecrated to him, and evinces, by this act and 
sign, that they were His property, and under His 
immediate protection ; and while they were his obed- 
ient servants, and followers of that which was good, 
no evil should befall them; for he is with them al- 
ways, even unto the end. 

It was a custom in the Roman empire, to stamp 
w T ith a hot iron the name of the owner upon the 
forehead or shoulder of his slave, in order that his 
master might, in any event, the more easily recog- 
nize him. In comparison with such treatment, well 
might the heavenly Master say, Take my yoke, 
name, government, upon you, which is easy, and 
my burden which is light. 

It is worthy of remark, that the greater number 
of the first converts to Christianity were of the 
Twelve Tribes of Israel, who first heard of the Gos- 
pel on the return of the devout Jews after the day 
of Pentecost, when under the providence of God, the 
glad tidings of this peaceful system was carried to 
every nation under heaven. 

And it is moreover worthy of our notice, as we 
are informed by Church History, that not a single 
Jewish Christian perished at the siege of Jerusalem, 
A. D., 70 ; for believing the predictions, and, obey- 
ing the warnings of Christ, they left the city, and 
took refuge in Pella, a city east of the Jordan. 



198 PREDICTIONS 

The numbers, then, of the Twelve Tribes who had 
received the seal of the living God, and by their 
obedience gave evidence that they were his servants, 
must have amounted, during this prophetic time, 
from A. D., 1 to 360, to fully 144,000. 

God, in mercy to man, after due warning, often 
destroys whole nations when they prove to be incor- 
rigibly wicked. This is precisely the manner in 
which he dealt with the unbelieving, blaspheming and 
incorrigible Jews, when at the siege of Jerusalem he 
destroyed 1,500,000, and scattered the remainder of 
them abroad among the nations unto this day. 

[V. 4. And I heard the number of them which 
were sealed] — It does appear to me that this sentence 
and the remaining part of the chapter are designed 
as an amplification of that grand doctrine of inspira- 
tion, elsewhere stated in the Scriptures, and especi- 
ally by St. Peter, " That God is no respecter of 
persons ; but he that feareth him, and worketh right- 
eousness, is accepted of him in every nation." 

It appears, also, from the passage before us, that 
144,000 included all the Jews which had believed 
the Gospel and been converted to Christ; 12,000 out 
of each of the Tribes; which may further signify 
that a certain number is used to represent an un- 
known number ; but that fully the number expressed 
had been sealed and saved, if not the square of 
12,000 to each tribe, in all, 1,728,000. 

[Y. 5-8]. It appears that another very important 



OP THE PROPHETS. 199 

doctrine underlies the sublime emblems of this chap- 
ter : no idolater shall be accounted worthy to inherit 
the kingdom of heaven. And hence, the tribes of 
Ephraim and Dan, having been the principal pro- 
moters of idolatry among their brethren, are left out 
of this enumeration; and Levi and Joseph, their 
more honorable and virtuous brethren, those who had 
no worldly inheritance in Israel, are accounted worthy 
of the lieavenly inheritance ! 

How infinitely important the solemn injunction of 
the inspired penmen ! " Little children, keep your- 
selves from idols," " for thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve ; for I will 
not give mine honor to another ; for I am the living 
God, and beside me there is none other." 

[V. 9. After this I beheld, and lo ! a great multi- 
tude, which no man could number !] — After this 
vision concerning the Twelve Tribes of Israel, he 
saw another vision of a countless multitude, which 
includes not merely the inhabitants of earth, but " all 
the angels" and the whole host of the heavenly 
worlds. However, this appears to be especially de- 
signed to reveal to us the vast multitudes which had 
believed on Christ and had been converted to Chris- 
tianity from among the Gentiles : for it is said, they 
were " of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and 
tongues ;" and in this was fulfilled the prophecy of 
Isaiah ; " And unto him shall the gathering of the 
Gentiles be f " and they stood before the Lamb 



200 PREDICTIONS 

clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands," 
emblems of innocence and victory. 

[V. 10. And cried with a loud voice] — Here is 
evidence that those who loved God praised him with 
a loud voice, as loud no doubt as any mortal on earth 
could shout, and they were right before the throne 
in heaven. What have ye got to say, ye objectors, 
against Christians shouting, when by faith they real- 
ize the joys of their heavenly home! 

[Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the 
throne and unto the lamb] — The doctrine taught us 
here, is, that God is the author of present and eter- 
nal salvation to man ; and that this salvation is pro- 
cured for and given to him by the merits of the 
Lamb, through faith in his all-atoning blood, as their 
propitiatory sacrifice! and that this salvation is not 
confined to a favorite few ; but is provided and 
offered to all mankind on equal terms, and with equal 
earnestness and sincerity; and that this is so, is 
evinced by the facts before us ; for those who were 
redeemed and saved were of " all nations, and kin- 
dreds, and people, and tongues, a great multitude 
which no man could number." 

[Y. 11. And all the angels stood round about the 
throne, and the elders, and the four beasts, and fell 
before the throne upon their faces, and worshiped 
God] — Here is no idolatry, no inferior worship paid 
to any order of beings, however exalted. No- homage 
paid to any patriarch, prophet, apostle, saint, or con- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 201 

fessor ! Where are you, friends of inferior adora- 
tion? Not of this multitude, and without humble 
repentance, can never be admitted into the glorious 
company of angels and spirits of the just, who pre- 
ferred death to idolatry. 

[V. 12. Saying, Amen] — As there is more joy in 
heaven over one sinner that repents, than over ninety 
and nine which have already repented and are saved, 
no wonder the angels take such intense interest in 
the repentance and salvation of such immense mul- 
titudes which, like lost sheep, have been gathered 
from the wilderness and from among the wolves of 
this world, and brought to colonize the climes of im- 
mortality, and increase the multitude of the heavenly 
host, and dwell forever in the city of God. 

[Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiv- 
ing, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our 
God forever and ever. Amen] — It ought to be so, 
and it will be so, and it shall be so, according to the 
terms of this angelic doxology. 

[Y. 13. And one of the elders answered, saying 
unto me] — The term answered, is an idiom of lan- 
guage which admits by metonymy, the answer for 
the question, and simply signifies that one of the 
elders spoke to him, and asked, " What are these 
which are arrayed in white robes ? and whence came 
they ?" 

[V. 14. And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. 
And he said unto me, These are they which came out 



202 PREDICTIONS 

of great tribulation] — It is a part of the portion of 
the people of God to suffer affliction in this life ; for 
we are told, " many are the afflictions of the right- 
eous;" and that in this world they shall have 
tribulation, and that they that will live godly in 
Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution, and that 
through much tribulation we shall enter the kingdom 
of heaven. 

This great multitude had gone up to possess the 
inheritance of the saints, through great tribulations? 
heartfelt sorrows, deep anguish and persecutions of 
every kind, after their robes were washed, sins par- 
doned, and their souls purified with the blood of the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the 
world. 

The white robes mentioned in the text, can not sig- 
nify what some teach; that they are the righteous- 
ness of Christ with which the saints are clothed as 
with a garment ; for the righteousness of Christ can 
not be washed and made white in his own blood, and 
to say so would be blasphemy ; for he was holy, un- 
defiled, aod separate from the contamination of sin- 
ners, and such a high priest became us. In Hevela- 
tion, chapter xix, 8, we are told, in language not to 
be misunderstood, that the white robes or white linen 
is the righteousness of the saints, their own personal 
purity; and this is the righteousness in which they 
stand before the throne. Therefore, it is not Christ's 
righteousness, but the righteousness wrought out for 



OF THE PROPHETS. 203 

them in the pardon of sin through faith by the merit 
of his blood ; and wrought in them by the purification 
of their souls through the power of the Holy Ghost. 

[V. 15. Therefore are they before the throne of 
God] — Because they are pardoned and purified in the 
blood of the Lamb, through sanctification of the 
Spirit, and belief of the truth of the Gospel. 

[And serve him day and night in his temple] — 
They shall serve him without ceasing; their whole 
existence shall be a living and willing sacrifice of 
service of faith, love, and obedience, throughout the 
unending days of eternity, in his temple not made 
with mortal hands ; but eternal, in the HEAVEN of 
heavens, the New Jerusalem. 

[And he that sitteth upon the throne shall dwell 
among them] — Now m this world he dwells spiritu- 
ally among his people, walks in his own Church 
amidst the golden candlesticks, and abides in the 
heart of every true believer. But in the world to 
come, whereof we now speak, he will no longer be 
the invisible ; but will dwell visibly and personally 
among his people : u for we shall be like him, and see 
him as he is," in his glorious person and hypostatic 
existence ; " for when that which is perfect is come, 
then that which is in part shall be done away; for 
now, we see through a glass darkly; but then, face 
to face." 

[V. 16. They shall hunger no more] — These are 
they which came out of great tribulation, having 



204 PREDICTIONS 

journeyed through a wilderness of hunger, where 
they were deprived by the wolves of this world of 
any peaceful enjoyments by the wayside ; and hur- 
ried on in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and 
martyr fires, to their heavenly homes in the New Je- 
rusalem, where no persecutor shall ever kill any of 
them with hunger, or thirst, or bind them naked in 
the scorching sunshine, till by hunger, thirst, and 
burning heat, they perish. 

[V. 17. For the Lamb which is in the midst of 
the Throne shall feed them] — The term Lamb, which 
signifies the Lord Jesus Christ, is used, by metonymy, 
for the Shepherd of Israel, who is enthroned, with 
his Father, in hypostatic and ineffable glory, and 
constantly communicates to his people whatever is 
calculated to secure, continue, and increase their 
present and eternal happiness, whether in this world, 
by the communion of his Spirit and the ministry of 
angels, or in the world to come, by his personal 
presence. 

[And shall lead them to living fountains of waters] 
■ — The major part of this great multitude had suf- 
fered martyrdom, and perished of hunger, or parched 
with thirst, or weeping in bitter anguish, with no one 
nigh who dared to pity them or wipe from their eyes 
their dying tears ! But how changed is their con- 
dition! They have now whatever can nourish or 
comfort ! They are now led to living fountains of 
waters, endless sources of comfort and happiness, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 205 

which our Redeemer and elder brother will open, out 
of his unsearchable riches and infinite plenitude, to 
all glorified humanity. These fountains of living 
waters, perpetually flowing up and running on, will 
make an infinite variety in the pure enjoyments of 
the heavenly state, and perfect the happiness of the 
blessed. 

" There will be no sameness, and consequently no 
cloying with the perpetual enjoyment of the same 
things ; every moment will open a new source of 
pleasure, instruction and improvement ; they shall 
make an eternal progression into the fullness of 
God, and, as God is infinite, so his attributes are in- 
finite ; and throughout infinity more and more of 
those attributes will be discovered, and the discovery 
of each will be a new foundation or source of pleas- 
ure and enjoyment. These sources must continue to 
develop through all eternity, and yet through all 
eternity there will still remain, in the absolute per- 
fections of the Godhead, an infinity of them to be 
developed." — Dr. Clarke. 

[And God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes] — This is the most beautiful image, of the in- 
finite affection of our heavenly Father, which can be 
found in all the records of time. The Bible, with all 
its excellent and refined imagery, brings up this as 
the crowning glory. As kind parents pity their in- 
nocent and suffering children, and take them to their 
bosoms and gently wipe away their tears of sorrow, 
18 



206 PREDICTIONS 

and console them with pitying words, so the Lord 
pitieth his children, and cares for his people, and 
bears them in his bosom, nourishes them with his 
grace, and consoles them with his promises, and wipes 
away their tears, and removes all causes of distress, 
suffering and grief. 

Kind reader, this is ' the happiness of those who 
have washed their robes and made them white in the 
blood of the Lamb of God, which taketh away the 
sin of the world. Art thou washed? 0! rest not 
till thou art washed, and hast on the wedding gar- 
ment, and art prepared for the inheritance of the 
saints. Take these multitudes of redeemed mortals 
for an example of sufiering, and of patience, and of 
faithfulness, " and be thou faithful unto death, and I 
will give thee a crown of life." 



OF THE PROPHETS. 207 

CHAPTER VIII. 

SEVENTH SEAL— FROM A. D., 360 TO 420. 

The opening of the Seventh Seal indicates the 
time of 60 years, as all the other Seals have. It 
was during this Seal period that there was silence in 
heaven for the space of half an hour ; which sym- 
bolizes the time of peace in the Church, when she 
had rest from all her enemies for twenty-four years. 
But, as in nature, a great calm is often succeeded by a 
devastating storm; so it was with the Church. By 
the end of this period there were voices, and thun- 
derings, and lightnings, and earthquakes — great po- 
litical and ecclesiastical storms — thunderings of war, 
and divisions, and destructions of kingdoms. 

[V. 1. And when he had opened the seventh seal, 
there was silence in heaven about the space of half 
an hour] — We have already intimated that the sev- 
enth seal, like its sacred symbol, the seventh day, is a 
time of rest, of quiet, and of silence. From the 
close of the period of the sixth seal, A. D., 360, to 
the days of Theodosius, there was rest, quiet, and 
silence throughout the Church, which is symbolized 
in the text by heaven. Christians enjoyed almost 
undisputed and unmolested privileges through all the 
Roman Empire. We have assigned to each of the 
seals sixty years; and if we take a year for a min- 



208 PREDICTIONS 

ute, then sixty years would equal sixty minutes, or 
one hour. Now then, the seventh seal begins to be 
opened A. D.. 360, and ends in the year A. D., 420. 
About the space of half an hour, or half of the 
period of this seal, there was silence. 

That the reader may have a more convincing 
proof of these things, we lay the facts before him : 
" In the time of Theodosius, A. D., 384, the cause 
of Christianity and Paganism was solemnly debated 
between St. Ambrose, the champion of the former? 
and Symmachus, the defender of the latter. Chris- 
tianity was triumphant, and the senate of Rome 
issued a decree for the abolition of Paganism, the 
downfall of which in the capital, was soon followed 
by its Dominal extinction throughout the Roman 
Empire." 

Here the silence of the Sabbatic hour ends, and 
with the opening of the seventh seal, is ushered in 
the Trumpet period ; and from this period, for 1260 
years, we have no more silence, but perpetual sound- 
ing of trumpets, or clangor of arms, or noise of 
battles, or roaring of the seas, or the thunders of 
Heaven — noise above, around, beneath. 

[V. 2. And I saw the seven angels which stood 
before God] — These seven angels appear to be the 
special agents of the Divine government, who may 
be considered as the privy council or cabinet of the 
Heavenly Throne, or may be the same as the seven 
Spirits of God mentioned in chapter i : 4. There is 



OF THE PROPHETS. 209 

also an allusion, in all probability, to the ancient 
custom of the Persian monarchs of having constantly 
about their thrones seven wise men as counselors. 
The Holy Trinity form the Heavenly council, and all 
the seven orders of angelic beings stand about the 
Throne ready to do the Divine will. 

[And to them were given seven trumpets] — The 
sounding of one trumpet, according to the Mosaic 
law, called together the elders and officers of the 
congregation or Church in the wilderness. But 
when two trumpets sounded, it was for the purpose 
of calling together officers, priests and people. But 
when seven trumpets were sounded, it was the sound- 
ing of an alarm in the land, and all were to prepare 
for war. 

[V. 8. And another angel came and stood at the 
altar, having a golden censer] — This indicates that 
the angels with the silver censer, the Jewish priest- 
hood, would be superseded by a new order, the angel 
with the golden censer, the Christian priesthood ; 
and that it Avould about this time gain the ascend- 
ancy over all other religious orders : and, from the 
historical quotation above, we learn that this pro- 
phecy was literally fulfilled. Here is also a refer- 
ence to the custom of the Jews in their religious ser- 
vices ; on ordinary days the priest offered incense in 
a silver censer ; but on the great day of their solem- 
nities or expiation, the high priest alone used a 
golden censer, and this was evidently a symbol of 



210 PREDICTIONS 

those things above named, for their whole religious 
system was a type or shadow of good things to 
come. 

[And there was given unto him much incense, 
that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints 
upon the golden altar which was before the throne] — 
Incense is the emblem of holiness, purity, joy and 
thanksgiving ; thus, the righteous actions, the pure 
lives, and thankful and joyful hearts of Christians, 
were offered as a sacrifice to the service of the 
Church, and their prayers to God for his blessings 
upon their labors for his cause ; and thus they offered 
their bodies a living sacrifice with their prayers, and 
both came up acceptably upon the golden altar, 
through the merits of Christ, who, upon the golden 
altar of the Divinity, sacrificed the humanity of his 
nature, and became the sacrifice and sweet smelling 
savor before the throne for us, and ever lives our 
all-atoning High Priest. 

[V. 4. And the smoke of the incense, with the 
prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of 
the angel's hand] — Smoke is the evidence of fire. 
So, the pure lives, the good works, and joyful hymns, 
and thankful songs of the Christian are the smoke 
which the world sees, and is to them evidence that 
such are burning or shining lights; and this smoke, 
the evidence of burning zeal for heaven, ascends 
with the prayers of the saints before God, and is 
evidence that this great accumulation of incense, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 211 

this great multitude of saints, and their works and 
prayers, are acceptable to God. And this was espe- 
cially and literally true, when the smoke of the in- 
cense — the smoke of the martyrs — went up with 
their prayers. " As the character of Trajan is sul- 
lied by the martyrdom of Ignatius, so the reign of 
Marcus Aurelius is forever disgraced by the sacrifice 
of the venerable Poly carp, bishop of Smyrna, the 
friend and companion of St. John. A few days 
previous to his martyrdom, he is said to have dreamed 
that his pillow was on fire. When urged by the pro- 
consul to renounce Christ, he replied : " Fourscore 
and six years have I served him, and he has never 
done me an injury. Can I blaspheme my king and 
my Saviour ?" Several miracles are said to have 
happened at his death. The flames, as if unwilling 
to injure his sacred person, are said to have arched 
over his head ; and from the martyr's fire, ascended 
an odor as of most fragrant incense." — Church His- 
tory, Cent. II. 

[V. 5. And the angel took the censer, and fille*! 
it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth] — 
The angel took the censer, the Gospel system, the 
instrument to bear the fire of truth and love from 
the altar, and cast it into the earth. And this same 
word, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, becomes the 
most potent of all weapons to be found in the armory 
of heaven. Although the kingdom of Christ is not 
of this world, yet it is designed by its divine founder 



212 PREDICTIONS 

to be aggressive, and to subdue and break in pieces 
all other kingdoms and empires. " I am come to 
send fire on the earth," and the angel, the true 
Christian priesthood, the bearers of the golden cen- 
ser, the pure Gospel system, are the servants which 
I have called and sent, and by them it is already 
kindled. " Think not that I am come to send peace 
on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword;" 
even the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of 
God. " Eor the word of God is quick and powerful, 
and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing 
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and 
of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the 
thoughts and intents of the heart." 

[And there were voices] — Proclaiming this mighty 
word through all the world, to every creature ; — [and 
thunderings] natural indications that God's word 
would not return unto him void ; but that showers of 
grace would descend from clouds of mercy, to water 
the good seed, and that it would grow, and increase, 
and prevail mightily ; — \_and lightnings] indicating 
that a supernatural power and light would attend it, 
and that it would irresistibly make its way through 
the world, and quickly enlighten and diffuse its elec- 
trifying influence among men, producing an earth- 
quake ; a great change in the moral and political 
condition of mankind. 



OP THE PROPHETS. 213 

PART THIRD, PERIOD THIRD— FROM 420 TO 1680. 
FIRST TRUMPET— FROM A. D., 420 TO 600. 

The First Trumpet begins to sound, which is an- 
other term to indicate Time ; and therefore each 
trumpet indicates a period of 180 years ; and seven 
of these periods are contained in the 3d period, or 
1260 years— from 420 to 1680. The First Trumpet 
represents hail and fire mingled with blood; signi- 
fying the storms of war which fell on the family of 
Constantine, until peace was concluded under Theo- 
dosius, who extinguished Paganism and established 
Political Christianity— if such a term may be allow- 
ed; which event occurred in 384. This Trumpet is 
sounded to call the warriors to action, and sounds 
180 years, to chastise the unfaithful Church for 
her State union-, which was done by calling down 
the Huns, Vandals, and Goths, from the North, like 
a hailstorm — emblematic of its being a chastisement 
from heaven. It was during this period of the first 
Trumpet, that the old Roman empire, or Daniel's 
Seven-headed and Ten-horned Beast, was utterly 
destroyed, and the city of Rome taken and burned 
by Alaric, A. D. 410, and the New Roman Govern- 
ment, under the Justinian Code, which is St. John's 
Seven-headed and Ten-horned Beast, was fully es- 
tablished by A. D. 540, and continued to exist and 
exercise its power, almost uncontrolled, 1260 years 
-to A. D. 1800. 
19 



214 PREDICTIONS. 

SECOND TRUMPET— FROM A. D. 600 TO 780. 

The Second Trumpet sounds, and a Mountain, 
burning with fire, is cast into the sea, whereby it be- 
comes blood; signifying that a mighty Kingdom or 
power would burn or destroy the sea — emblem of a 
corrupt Church; or, that the persecuting power of 
the Roman Empire would be transferred to the Sea, 
or become a Church and State Government. This 
Trumpet is sounded to call Mohammed, and his suc- 
cessors, to chastise the Church, which was becoming 
corrupt, corrupting, cruel and unjust. This event 
well-nigh ruined the Roinan Empire, and still further 
tarnished the glory of Some, which, under the first 
Trumpet period, contained 6,000,000 inhabitants. 
For more than six hundred years Rome had not been 
disturbed by the presence of a foreign enemy ; and 
for more than one thousand years she had stretched 
her arm of power over the nations; but Alaric the 
Goth, afterward styled the King of the Visigoths, 
brought his armies, whose numbers . seemed inex- 
haustible, and besieged, and sacked, and burned 
Rome and left it in ruins, after having destroyed 
200,000 of its most peaceable inhabitants. 

THIRD TRUMPET— FROM A. D. 780 TO 960. 

While the Third Trumpet sounded, which is a pe- 
riod of 180 years, a Tniming star — burning as a lamp 
— is represented as falling from heaven; which sig- 
nifies that some notable minister^ or, by enallage, 
many ministers, should fall from their high and holy 



OF THE PROPHETS. 215 

position, and cause the people, symbolized by waters, 
to become bitter as wormwood, by turning away from 
the pure and refreshing waters of Gospel truth, to 
the bitter waters of Idolatry ; for idolatry, in the 
language of Scripture, is called bitter water ; and 
moreover, it was in this Period that the doctrine and 
practice of idolatry were fully established. Therefore, 
we hold that this Star is used to represent the Min- 
isters of Religion, one being put for many, who fell 
from their holy estate and imbittered the people with 
the doctrine of Idolatry by introducing Image "Wor- 
ship into the Church. 

FOURTH TRUMPET— FROM A. D. 960 TO 1140. 

This was the darkest period of the Dark Ages. 
This Trumpet is sounded to teach the Charch of 
Rome that Christ is the head of his Church, and that 
his Kingdom is not of this world; and therefore she 
should not strive for worldly power — a lesson, how- 
ever, she would not learn. 

[Y. 6. And the seven angels which had the seven 
trumpets, prepared themselves to sound] — We learn 
from this passage that every action, whether mental, 
moral, or physical, requires time; and that whoso- 
ever would do the will of the Almighty Father, must 
'prepare themselves, whether they be angels or men. 
Time is an irresistible talent, committed, in common 
to every rational creature, and for its improvement 
or misimprovement, we must at the last give a strict 
account to God : for, " He that knoweth his Master's 



216 PREDICTIONS 

will, and doeth it not, neither prepared himself, shall 
be beaten with many stripes." 

[V. 7. The first angel sounded, and there followed 
hail and fire mingled with blood ; and they were cast 
upon the earth ; and the third part of trees was 
burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up] — Order 
is heaven's primary law in every department of his do- 
minions, whether in the physical, spiritual, mental, or 
moral universe. If this be so, we may confidently 
expect to find him faithful to himself and his creat- 
ures in prophetic revelations, as well as in the com- 
plex developments of creation. 

Preparations began for sounding the seven trump- 
ets, simultaneously with opening of the seventh 
seal, A. D. 360 ; but were not completed for 60 years 
after, (A. D. 420,) and then each trumpet occupies a 
period of three times 60, or 180 years ; and the 
sounding of each trumpet requires periods of equal 
length, each 180 years ; and, in all, equal to seven 
half times, or three times and a half. In prophetic 
time, each natural year, or our common year, is a 
prophetic day; and 30 days prophetic, is one such 
month ; and twelve such months, one such year ; 
and 12 times 30 are 360 years, which make a pro- 
phetic year or time; and three and a half such "times 
make 1260 prophetic days, or 1260 common years. 
As there was silence in the first part of the seventh 
seal period, which dates A. D. 360, it was the time 
occupied in making preparations for the important 



OF THE PROPHETS. 217 

actions and events which were to transpire under the 
first trumpet period. 

Warlike preparations began to be made, and the 
sounding of the trumpet to reverberate through the 
land, in about thirty years from the beginning of this 
period; and the actions and events foretold in this 
prophecy were fulfilled in about fifty years from the 
date of the above period. It will be our business, in 
the elucidation of our great subject, to ascertain if the 
coincidence of prophecy and history is so exact as to 
satisfy the humble inquirer after truth ; that, on 
comparison of the two witnesses, history and proph- 
ecy, we have obtained facts that enable us to believe 
that we know the time and place, the actions and re- 
sults which indicate that we have found the true and 
legitimate fulfillment of the prophecy. 

As all the facts, actions and events of this first 
trumpet period are briefly summed up in a single 
sentence, we hope we shall be able to show satis- 
factorily its fulfillment in a brief quotation from 
history. 

Many eminent men suppose that the irruptions of 
the barbarous nations from the north are intended 
under the emblem of hail ; they came not as the 
dew, or rain, or snow, to refresh, to invigorate, or to 
fertilize, but as a scourge from the north — the scourge 
of God ! And the raging fire of war came with this 
dreadful scourge, and it was mingled with blood ; it 
was prosecuted with life, vigor and energy, symbol- 



218 PREDICTIONS 

ized by blood ; and they, the hail and fire, were cast 
upon the earth — the Roman empire — and the third 
part of the earth was burnt up. Earth instead of 
trees is used by a great many ancient and authentic 
versions, and is to my mind evidently the genuine 
reading. Earth, then, is used by metonymy for the 
things which came of it. All flesh is as grass ; and 
indeed, in speaking of man, a prophet says all flesh 
is grass. But there is a distinction made between 
men. Some are dead grass — dead in trespasses and 
sins ; while others are green grass — alive unto God 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ himself uses 
a figure of speech, conveying the same idea : " If 
these things be done in the green tree, what shall be 
done in the dry" — or dead trees or grass? The 
trees may signify the officers of state, and the green 
grass symbolize Christians. 

We shall try to observe which way the angel of 
war takes his flight, and in what part of the world 
the trumpet of war is sounded during the period of 
180 years, from A. D., 420 to 600. By these indi- 
cations we shall as readily discern the signs of the 
times, as by looking alia correct clock, we know by 
its hands, the hour of the day. 

1. " The northern nations, consisting of various 
tribes in Germany, Scythia and other regions of the 
north and' northeast, commonly called Goths, Huns, 
Vandals, etc., had, for a considerable length of time 
previously to the sacking and burning of F.ome, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 219 

made frequent attacks upon the borders of the em- 
pire ; but they were generally repulsed. Their num- 
ber (like the hail), seemed inexhaustible, and they 
were poured like a torrent (of hail) upon the en- 
feebled and distracted empire." 

The Christians, as we have already remarked, 
symbolized by green grass, were all destroyed, com- 
paratively speaking ; although Alaric had given 
command to his soldiery not to hurt any one who 
was unarmed ; for great multitudes of Christians, 
from conscientious principles, would not bear arms ; 
for they considered it was not lawful for them to 
fight for the kingdoms of this world. But we will 
give the exact words of the historian: 

" Notwithstanding the orders given by Alaric, that 
none but the armed should be killed, yet vast multi- 
tudes of the unarmed citizens were put to death ; 
and probably more of this class were reduced from 
affluence to the miserable condition of captives, 
slaves and exiles, on account of their non-resistance, 
than had been put to death ;" and hence, figuratively 
speaking, " all green grass was burnt up " — utterly 
consumed and destroyed. 

Here, under the very first blast of tins trumpet, we 
find the prophecy fulfilled so satisfactorily, that it is 
equal to a demonstration. But we shall show that 
this first trumpet sounds seven times, and every time 
in the same " third part of the earth," the Roman 
empire. 



220 PREDICTIONS 

2. We will take notice of the results of the second 
blast of this first trumpet. i; The ravages of Attila, 
the Hun, in the Roman empire, commenced A. D,, 
445. He overran Xllyricum, Thrace, Dacia and 
Moesia, and at that time laid the Romans under 
tribute. Soon after, with an army of 500,000 men, 
he threatened the destruction of the whole empire. 
He was, however, ably opposed by Actius, a noble 
general of Valentinian III. While the Vandals, 
under Genseric, were trampling on the Roman pro- 
vince of Africa, and at length took and plundered 
Rome itself, the Huns were advancing upon the em- 
pire from the northeast. This people are supposed 
to have originated from the eastern part of Asia; 
and extending their conquests from the borders of 
China to the Baltic Sea, they impelled the Goths 
upon the Roman empire, and soon followed in the 
same track. Their march was extremely desolating. 
To their leader, Attila, the victims of his ambition 
have given the expressive appellation of " The 
Scourge of GoolP 

3. Now let us listen to the third blast of this 
trumpet, and learn where it sounds next. • 

" The arrival of the Saxons in Britain, a province 
of the Roman empire, was connected with the re- 
duction of the southern part of the island under the 
Saxon power. They landed under the command of 
Hengist and Horsa, A. D., 451, and, having as- 
sisted the Britons in repelling the Picts and 



OF THE PROPHETS. 221 

Scots, they then turned their arms against the 
Britons." 

4. We shall watch the ways of this angel of war, 
to learn where he sounds his trumpet for the fourth 
time. 

" The taking of Rome by Odoacer, prince of the 
Heruii, put an end to the western Roman empire, 476 
A. C. The length of time which it had existed as 
an empire, viz., from the battle of Actium, 31 B. C, 
to 476, A. C, was 507 years. The whole period, 
from the building of the city, was 1224 years. The 
eastern part of the empire continued some time after 
this date, though in comparative darkness. 

" The ruin of the Roman empire was the result 
of its greatness, connected with its moral corruption. 
Divine Providence is constantly concerned by natural 
causes, as well as supernatural, called angels, in 
effecting the extinction of enormously guilty nations. 
Rome having become a mass of luxury, weakness 
and profligacy, fell an easy prey to the northern bar- 
barians, who poured in like a hailstorm upon its do- 
minions. 5 ' 

5. We shall again watch this angel, and learn 
where he sounds the trumpet for the fifth time, to 
call the warriors to action. 

" The reign of Theodoric the Great in Italy, com- 
menced A. D., 488. Having wrested the sovereignty 
of that country from the hands of Odoacer, by means 
of several engagements, he enjoyed the possession 



222 PREDICTIONS 

of it for a number of years, -with credit to himself 
and with the approbation of his Roman subjects. 
After a severe struggle Odoacer surrendered all Italy 
to the conqueror, Theodoric, who has the reputation 
of having been an able and virtuous emperor." 

6. The angel of war sounded his trumpet for the 
sixth time, in Africa, which was a part of the Roman 
empire. 

" The defeat of the Vandals in Africa, by Belisa- 
rius, occurred A. J). 354. By that event Africa was 
recovered to the Roman empire. The army of the 
Vandals, under Gelimer, the successor of Genseric, 
vastly exceeded that of the Romans ; but the fate of 
Africa was soon decided by the valor of the Roman 
general. 

7. The first angel sounds his trumpet for war the 
seventh and last time in Italy. 

" The subjugation of the Ostrogoths in Italy, by 
Belisarius, restored that country to the empire. This 
event took place A. D., 537. The restoration, how- 
ever, was temporary ; for after various turns of suc- 
cess and defeat, during thirty years, Italy was aban- 
doned to the northern barbarians. Having recruited 
his forces, the Gothic monarch advanced to the cap- 
ital, now occupied by Relisarius; but with 100,000 
men he failed of his object, and was entirely de- 
feated. 

" Six years after this event, Totila the Goth at- 
tempted the recovery of Italy from the Romans, and 



OF THE PROPHETS. 223 

succeeded. Beli sarins, who had been called away 
from the theater of action, returned to Italy, but he 
was at first unable to preserve the capital. Totila 
took it, and began the work of destruction, with the 
purpose of turning this bloody city into an utter 
ruin. Warned, however, by Belisarius, who appealed 
to the barbarian's sense of glory, he forbore to exe- 
cute his threat of turning Rome into a desolate 
waste, or pasture for cattle." 

It is worthy of note that history gives no account 
of wars in any other part of the world during all 
this period, from A. D. 420 to 600. 

[V. 8. And the second angel sounded, and as it 
were a great mountain burning with fire was cast 
into the sea : and the third part of the sea became 
blood.] 

[Y. 9. And the third part of the creatures which 
were in the sea, and had life, died ; and the third 
part of the ships were destroyed] — The ninth verse 
explains the latter clause of the eighth, and its ex- 
pository character would be much more readily per- 
ceived if it began with the word even instead of and, 
which the original admits. 

I think that it has been clearly established by the 
Annotations and historical quotations, in regard to 
the first trumpet, that the events foretold under it 
applied to the earth — the political affairs of the 
F^oman empire — and that it does not apply to any 
thing else. 



224 PREDICTIONS 

It will be our purpose to show that the facts, ac- 
tions and events of the second trumpet period ap- 
plies to the Church, symbolized by the sea. This 
period embraces 180 years, from A. D. 600 to 780. 

During this period the light of science became far 
more dim than during the preceding, and both writer 
and reader must " walk amidst assassins and execu- 
tioners, without finding objects less dreadful on which 
they may rest their eyes." 

History is the only sure interpreter of prophecy; 
and hence prophecy can not be satisfactorily ex- 
plained until fulfilled. If the prophecy under con- 
sideration is already fulfilled, and the period we 
have assigned it be correct, we shall be able, from 
history, to find that the great and absorbing ac- 
tions and events of this period coincide with the 
prophecy. 

When the second angel sounded his trumpet for 
the first time, a great " mountain," symbol of a great 
power opposing the Church, burning with fire, em- 
blematic of its destructive and consuming influence, 
was cast into the sea ; as a mountain of fire rolling 
on through the waves of human population, nothing 
being able, from its fiery character, to oppose its de- 
vastating progress. 

[And the third part of the sea became blood] — 
That is, by interpretation, the third part of the 
creatures — people which were in the sea, the Church, 
and had life, the life of God, true Christians — died 



OF THE PROPHETS. 225 

by fire or sword, because they would not renounce 
their religion and their heavenly Master. And the 
third part of the ships, the churches, or the mem- 
bers of the churches, were destroyed or turned to 
the use of a religion falsely so called. About a third 
part of true Christians and their property were de- 
stroyed, wherever this desolating fiery mountain 
made its way over the sea, spreading ruin, as if 
driven on by the resistless power of destiny. Shall 
we find, in this period, an historical coincidence to 
satisfy us that we are correct ? 

We shall see that the introduction of the Moham- 
medan religion and the establishment of the Moham- 
medan empire are the only great and absorbing ac- 
tions and events of this trumpet period, and in them 
we shall find a perfect coincidence with the pro- 
phecy ; and hence a complete and satisfactory ful- 
fillment. 

1. " Christianity received, at an early period of 
this century (A. D. 622), a most total and over- 
whelming calamity from the doctrines and conquest? 
of Mahomet, or Mohammed, the arch impostor of 
the world. Descended from the most illustrious 
tribe of the Arabians, and from the most illustrious 
family of that tribe, Mohammed was, however, re- 
duced, by the early death of his father, to the poor 
inheritance of five camels and an Ethiopian maid- 
servant. In his twenty-fifth year he entered into 
the service of Cadijah, an opulent widow of Mecca, 



226 PREDICTIONS 

his native citj. By selling her merchandise in the 
countries of Syria, Egypt and Palestine, Mohammed 
acquired a great part of that knowledge of the world 
which facilitated his imposture and his conquests ; 
and, at length, the gratitude or affection of Cadi j ah 
restored him to the station of his ancestors, by be- 
stowing on him her hand and her fortune. 

" The religion of which he was the author is a 
system of Asiatic voluptuousness and Arabian super- 
stition, grafted partly on the morality of the Gospel 
and partly on some of the rites of Judaism. 

" Thus the doctrines of Mohammed were artfully 
adapted to the prejudices of the Jews, the several 
heresies and corruptions of the Christian Church, 
and the pagan rites of the Arabs." 

" From the time that Mohammed took Mecca, he 
never laid down his arms till he had subdued all 
Arabia, and a part of Syria, imposing his religion 
by fire or sword wherever he extended his conquests. 
In the midst of his conquests he died, aged sixty-one 
years, A. D. 632. 

" Under his immediate* successors, Abubeker, 
Omar, Otman, and Ali (how like ' a great mountain 
burning with fire' this desolating scourge made its 
way over the world I), in the space of fifty years, an 
empire was erected which was more extensive than 
what remained of the Homan. It included Arabia, 
Syria, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Persia, 
Egypt, Lybia. Numidia, Bactrania. and a part of 



OF THE PROPHETS. 227 

Tartary. The name of Saracens, or Moors, is given 
to those successors of Mohammed who extended 
their empire through North Africa, South Europe, 
and the Islands of the Mediterranean. The last of 
this race is the present Emperor of Morocco. For 
the space of two centuries after the conquest of 
Spain by the Saracens, their princes gained the high- 
est reputation, both in arts and arms, of all the na- 
tions of the West." 

These historical quotations before us have fairly 
introduced Mohammed, his doctrines and practice. 
We shall now show the workings of the system, 
especially in regard to Christianity, under his imme- 
diate successors : 

" Under the successors of Mohammed, the Chris- 
tians, who were averse to his faith, suffered incredible 
hardships, and devastation and bloodshed marked the 
footstejjs of the professors of Islamism. The patri- 
archates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem 
were, during this century, abolished by the con- 
quests and cruelties of the Saracens. Toleration 
was not the virtue of the followers of Mohammed ; 
and however the Arabian Caliph (a name which 
equally implies both spiritual and temporal com- 
mand) might be disposed to favor those sects by 
whom their conquests had been originally advanced, 
the orthodox Christians were severely opposed, perse- 
cuted and destroyed, and the ministry strictly pro- 
hibited from the exercise of their offices." 



228 PREDICTIONS 

2. This angel sounded his trumpet the second 
time to call the Saracen warriors to the siege of 
Constantinople. 

" The siege of Constantinople by the Saracens oc- 
curred A. D. 672. It proved to be ineffectual, 
though the preparations made by them were vast, 
and their expectations of success undoubted. Mo- 
hammed, in his lifetime, had asserted that the sins 
of the first army which besieged Constantinople 
should be forgiven. This inspired the Saracen lead- 
ers and troops with singular enthusiasm ; but their 
enthusiasm was in vain. The solid and lofty walls 
of Constantinople were matters of fact, and well de- 
fended ; and, above all, the Arabs were dismayed by 
the strange and prodigious effects of artificial fire. 
They, however, repeated their attacks for six sum- 
mers in succession, until the loss of thirty thousand 
Moslems compelled them to abandon their enter- 
prise." 

3. The third blast of the trumpet, by this angel, 
is to call the Saracens to the conquest of Spain. 

" The conquest of Spain by the Saracens was 
achieved under Muca, general of the Caliph Walid, 
A. D. 713. The conquerors, satisfied with the sov- 
ereignty of the country, left the Goths, who had long 
been masters of Spain, in the peaceable possession 
of their property, laws, and religion. By the mar- 
riage of Abdallah, the Saracen, with the widow of 
Rodrigo, the Gothic king, the two nations formed a 



OF THE PROPHETS. 229 

perfect union ; and here the Saracen conquests end. 
— Blair 's Outlines of Chronology. 

With a brief quotation from another eminent his- 
torian, we will dismiss this "great mountain burning 
with fire, which was cast into the sea;" the territo- 
ries of the Christian Church, which, from the quota- 
tions already before us, must convince every one 
was during this period, "like- the troubled sea, when 
it can not rest, whose waters, cast up mire and dirt." 
This scourge of God was sent upon them on account 
of their wickedness ; for there is " no peace, saith my 
God, to the wicked." 

"According to the tradition of his companions, 
Mohammed was distinguished by the beauty of his 
person, an outward gift which is seldom despised, 
except by those to whom it has been refused. Be- 
fore he spoke, the orator engaged on his side the 
affections of a public or private audience. They 
applauded his commanding presence, his majestic 
appearance, his piercing eye, his gracious smile, his 
flowing beard, his countenance which painted every 
sensation of the soul, and his gestures which enforced 
each expression of the tongue. In the familiar of- 
fices of life, he scrupulously adhered to the grave 
and ceremonious politeness of his country ; his re- 
spectful attention to the rich and powerful was dig- 
nified by his condescension and affability to the 
poorest citizen of Mecca; the frankness of his man- 
ner concealed the artifice of his views ; and the hab- 
20 



230 PREDICTIONS 

its of country were imputed to personal friendship 
or universal benevolence. His memory was capa- 
cious and retentive; his wit easy and social; his im- 
agination sublime ; his judgment clear, rapid, and 
decisive. 

"He possessed great courage, both of thought and 
action; and, although his designs might gradually 
expand with his success, the first idea he entertained 
of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original 
and superior genius. Conversation enriches the un- 
derstanding by mutual reception and reflection, but 
solitude is the school of genius ; and the uniformity 
of a work denotes the hand of a single artist. From 
his earliest youth, Mohammed was addicted to relig- 
ious contemplation ; each year, during the month 
Ramadan, he withdrew from the busy scenes of the 
world, and in the cave Hera, three miles from Mecca, 
he passed his time, where he received his pretended 
revelation, and composed the Koran. 

" The faith which he taught in the Koran, and 
preached to his family and nation under the name 
of Islam, or Islamism, is compounded of an eternal 
truth and a necessary fiction : • That there is only 
one God, and that Mohammed is the apostle of God' " 
— Gibbon. 

4. This angel sounds his trumpet the fourth time 
to call the warriors of Persia to the conquest of Je- 
rusalem ; which is the only other event worthy of 
notice, during this period, of which sacred or civil 



OF THE PROPHETS. 231 

history gives any account; and, what is notable in- 
deed, it is also a " great mountain burning with fire, 
and was cast into the sea," the symbol of the Church. 

" The increase of Christianity was beheld by the 
Jews with the utmost rancor of which the human 
mind is susceptible ; and this passion was continually 
augmented by the severe edicts which, at various 
times, had been promulgated against them by their 
(falsely so called) Christian rulers. The wars be- 
tween the Persians and the Roman emperors afforded 
them an opportunity for the gratification of their re- 
venge. The conquest of Jerusalem was meditated 
and achieved by the zeal and prowess of Chosroes, 
who enlisted for this holy warfare 26,000 Jews. 
These saw with exultation the capture of the city, 
the flames bursting out from the stately churches of 
Helena and Constantino, the demolition of the sepul- 
cher of Christ, and the precious relic of the cross 
conveyed, together with its sacred guardian, the 
Christian patriarch, into Persia. The massacre of 
90,000 Christians was the result of the conquest of 
Chosroes; and many more were disposed of by the 
inhuman Persian to his Jewish adherents, and, in 
their subjugation to these masters they endured evils 
which were poorly compensated by the continuance 
of life." 

We have now before us a summary of the great 
facts, characters, actions, and events of this trumpet 
period; and, to our mind, they fully coincide with 



232 PREDICTIONS 

the facts, actions, and events indicated in the proph- 
ecy. 

[V. 10. And the third angel sounded, and there 
fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a 
lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, 
and upon the fountains of waters. 

[V. 11. And the name of the star is called 
Wormwood ; and the third part of the waters became 
wormwood; and many men died of the waters be- 
cause they were made bitter] — Under the symbols, 
emblems, and metonymies of this prophecy we have 
great and important characters, actions, and events 
foreshadowed; and as the prophecy has been long 
fulfilled, we shall be able readily to find its historical 
coincidence. 

The period occupied in sounding the third trumpet 
is also 180 j^ars, extending from A. D., 780 to 960. 

1. Wher, Ae third angel sounded his trumpet, 
there fell a -/reat star from heaven. A star here is 
the vjmbol of a minister of the Church, and by en- 
allage is put for the Christian priesthood. His fall- 
ing from heaven is his falling away from the truths 
of the Gospel, the commandments and doctrines of 
heaven. A gre-°,t star, burning as a lamp; a great 
minister, a lig£', of the Church — one much looked 
to as a guide fc. religion. As rivers are the tribu- 
taries of the r-d.^ral sea, and, flowing into it, make 
the great sea, s' the people, flowing into the church, 
entitle it to thp appellation of a sea. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 233 

[And upon the third part of the fountains of 
waters] — Causing the fountains from whence the 
rivers originate to be affected ; for " like people, like 
priest," its influence was injuriously felt by priests 
and people, at least by a third part of the Church in 
the Roman empire. 

[And the name of the star is called Wormwood] — 
the name, power, influence, doctrine of this star, is 
called Wormwood, which is a term used in several 
parts of the Bible to denote bitter and false doctrine, 
but especially idolatry. 

[And the third part of the waters became worm- 
wood] — That is, a third part of the people — great 
multitudes became imbittered by false and idolatrous 
doctrine. And many men died — were put to death 
by those who had turned away from the holy com- 
mandment delivered unto them, to keep themselves 
from idols. 

Now, if our interpretation of this scriptural rev- 
elation be correct, we must expect to find that idol- 
atry was fully introduced into the Church within 
this period ; and that some eminent gospel minister, 
one who had been looked up to as a great star, fell 
from his integrity, degraded his high vocation, and 
advocated the introduction of idolatry into the 
church ; and by this root of bitterness springing up, 
being nurtured and matured, many were troubled, 
persecuted and killed. But these things certainly 
have their coincidence in history, both in regard to 



234 PREDICTIONS 

time, character, action and event. Therefore we will 
proceed to bring forward the testimony. 

" The times were remarkable, indeed, for profli- 
gacy, and for misery, its concomitant. The imperial 
family of the Roman empire exhibited a series of the 
most horrible crimes. 

" The Church partook of the degeneracy, or rather, 
by its corruption, became the cause of it. Pure 
Christianity was but little known, amid futile forms 
and ceremonies, and external pomp. Worldly am- 
bition had taken possession of the pretended vice- 
gerents of Christ. The Popes now began to acquire 
temporal power and authority, and were gradually 
extending a spiritual jurisdiction over all the Chris- 
tian kingdoms. It was in this period they attained 
the hight of their power. For the most part, the 
state of the Church was extremely low during this 
period. The darkness and corruption of the times 
were so great, that but few enlightened and consist- 
ent believers could be found. Christianity was dis- 
honored both by the principles and practices of its 
teachers ; all ranks of the clergy, by ignorance, am- 
bition and voluptuousness. Benefices were publicly 
exposed for sale, so that the lowest and most profli- 
gate men often obtained them. The Popes gener- 
ally extended their temporal authority, and, together 
with the rest of the clergy, engrossed a share of 
influence in the administration of civil government, 
altogether inconsistent with their sacred functions. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 235 

Ecclesiastics became temporal rulers ; and kings, and 
princes, and nobles shut themselves up in cloisters, 
and spent their lives in penance. 

" The separation of the Greek from the Latin 
Church took place at this era; this event was brought 
about in consequence of a long standing difference 
between the Greek and Latin bishops, relating to 
several points of practice and discipline ; but more 
especially on account of the ambition of rival pon- 
tiffs, and the toleration of images and image-worship 
in the Latin Church, which practice is still con- 
tinued." 

" Measures against the prevalence of this perni- 
cious superstition were conceived and executed with 
resolution and intrepidity, and sharp and continued 
tumults agitated the whole Christian world on this 
subject. Synods clashed against synods, council 
against council, the East against the West. The 
miraculous efficacy of those painted pageants was 
insisted upon by the friends of idolatry. These pre- 
tended saints declared the justice of their cause by 
signs and portents, and the charges of idolatry and 
impiety were reciprocally and virulently applied to 
each other by the contending parties." 

This brief quotation from - Church history shows, 
beyond a doubt, that the waters— symbol of people — 
were, by this root of bitterness, apple of discord, 
grapes of Soclom, made as bitter as wormwood to- 
ward each other. This doctrine of idolatry is the 



236 PREDICTIONS 

doctrine of Satan, " the great star which fell from 
heaven," of which Christ personally told the dis- 
ciples, that he saw Satan fall like fire from heaven." 

I consider Gerraanus as coincident with the 
a great star from heaven, burning as a lamp,"' for he 
was patriarch of the Church of Rome, an office above 
a bishop, and little inferior to that of the Pope. Let 
us hear what the historian says : 

" Germanus, the patriarch, preached and wrote in 
defense of images, and was supported by legions who 
flocked with eagerness to his standard, and the 
standards of the degraded saints, 'because that, 
when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, 
neither were thankful, but became vain in their im- 
aginations, and their foolish heart was darkened ; 
professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 
and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an 
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and 
four footed beasts, and creeping things, who changed 
the truth of God into a lie (and those who worship 
images in the Church, wrest the Scriptures, the truth 
of God, in support of the practice), and worshiped 
and served the creature rather than the Creator, who 
is God alone, blessed forever. Amen.' " 

" Deplorable was the state of things in the Eoman 
Empire during this, period (from 780 to 960). Gov- 
ernment was weakened by perpetual revolutions, 
caused by electing or deposing different emperors or 
ecclesiastics ; military discipline decayed ; learning 



OF THE PROPHETS. 237 

was neglected or despised ; every species of atrocity 
were practiced under the mask of religious zeal ; and 
the empire was repeatedly invaded by barbarians, if 
it was possible for people to be more barbarous. In 
Syria and Palestine several cities were destroyed by 
earthquakes ; an extraordinary darkness, which 
lasted from the beginning of August to October, 
and occasioned little distinction between night and 
day, overspread tha,t country. 

" And this was followed by the plague, which 
broke out in Calabria, and soon spread over Sicily, 
Greece, and the islands of the iEgean Sea, and at 
length reached to Constantinople, where it raged fu- 
riously during the space of three years." 

" Upon the death of Ignatius, which occured A. D. 
878, the emperor took Photius into favor, and placed 
him again at the head of the Greek Church in the 
patriarchal dignity whence he had fallen. The coun- 
cil which was held at Constantinople, under Photius, 
A. D. 879, and which is reckoned by the Greeks the 
Eighth General Council, added force and vigor to 
idolatry, by maintaining the sanctity of images, and 
approving, confirming, and renewing the Nicene de- 
crees. Thus, after a controversy which had been 
protracted during the space of 150 years, the cause 
of idolatry triumphed over the dictates of reason and 
Christianity ; the whole East, the Armenians ex- 
cepted, bowed down before the victorious images; 
nor did any of the succeeding emperors attempt to 
21 



238 PREDICTIONS. 

recover the Greeks from this superstitious phrensy, 
or to restrain them in this puerile worship of the 
work of their own hands. 

"Religious, as well as civil, contests were again 
set on foot; new controversies were added to the 
old, in regard to the worship of idols, until the fatal 
schism took place which produced a lasting and total 
separation between the Greek and Latin Churches." 

We have clearly shown that the wormwood of 
idolatry imbittered the waters and produced the most 
bitter controversy that has ever troubled the Church, 
and that it fell upon the Church about the time, we 
say, the third angel sounded his trumpet ; and that 
it continued during the period we have assigned to 
this trumpet, one hundred and eighty years, to the 
close of A. D. 900, producing the most deplorable 
and ruinous schism which ever befell the Christian 
Church. 

[V. 12. And the fourth angel sounded, and the 
third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part 
of the moon, and the third part of the stars, so as the 
third part of them was darkened; and the day shone 
not for a third part of it, and the night likewise] — The 
fourth angel began to sound his trumpet to indicate 
the approach of the great darkness which was im- 
pending over the world, because of men turning away 
to idolatry : their foolish hearts were darkened, and 
because they did not like to retain God alone in their 
minds, as the true object of worship, he justly gave 



OF THE PROPHETS. 239 

them up to the power of darkness. This trumpet 
includes a period of 180 years, from A. D. 960 to 
A. D. 1140. 

1. The third part of the sun was smitten — that is, 
the third part of the Church in the Roman empire 
was smitten with darkness : with the dark errors of 
idolatry, with all its debasing, profligate, and miser- 
able consequences. This is the same number that 
was imbittered under the third trumpet ; their con- 
duct was first bitter, then black ; showing they were 
under the power of darkness, and that they loved 
darkness rather than light. That is, they loved the 
service of Satan rather than the service of God. 

2. And the third part of the moon — the moon, the 
political power of the government of the empire, was 
smitten, as the sun, above described. 

8. And the stars were smitten with darkness. The 
stars symbolize the Christian priesthood; and the 
third part of them were involved in this darkness of 
error, superstition, and idolatry. They departed from 
the faith of the Gospel ; turned the truth of God into 
a lie, and became mediums of darkness rather than 
light, to the people. They served to advance the 
kingdom of Satan in the world; but not the kingdom 
of God. They were the ministers of Satan ; not of 
Christ. They had the name and the form ; but they 
had not the life and the power of Christianity. 

[And the day shone not for the third part of it] — 
The day is put here by metonymy for the cause of 



240 PREDICTIONS 

day — the Sun— which did not shine out in its effulg- 
ence and power to dispel this darkness, this curse of 
idolatry from the empire. This clay, Sun, Church, 
had light ; but she hid it under a bushel ; she did not 
use her power to dispel the night of error, the dark 
clouds of superstition, the blackness of darkness, the 
curse of idol-worship from the Churches. Christians 
are of the Day ; the offspring of Day ; and, there- 
fore, they are called the light of the world, and are 
to let their light so shine that others may see their 
good works and glorify their Father in heaven. 

[And the night] — The term night is put here by 
metonymy for the moon, the ruler of the night ; as 
day in the former clause of the sentence is put for 
the sun, the ruler of the day. The night here im 
plies the civil or political government of the empire; 
that it did not use its power to dispel idolatry, the 
cause of the moral and political darkness of this 
period. St. Paul uses a figure very similar to this 
when he writes to the Church. (Rom. xiii, 11, and 
Eph. iv, 5-8). Of the saints or true Christians, he 
says : " Ye are all the children of light, even the 
children of 'the day ; we are not of the night nor of 
the darhiess. " That is, we are the children of God ; 
not the children of Satan. The sum of all is this ; 
neither did the day nor the night, the Church or the 
State exercise its power to dispel the dark, dreadful 
and ruinous errors of idolatry. 

" The Roman empire, which has filled so large a 



OF THE PROPHETS. 241 

space in the eyes of mankind, at this era, had fallen 
very considerably from its eminence; while other 
nations and sovereignties began to make a figure on 
the stage, and to attract a portion of public atten- 
tion. "With the decay of the Roman empire, and the 
corruption of the Christian religion, was connected 
the increasing darkness of the times." — Blair's Out- 
lines of Chronology, from Cent. VIII to XI. 

This is testimony precisely to our purpose in sup- 
port of our positions. I remember to have seen the 
remark somewhere, in regard to the tenth century, 
" That when little was done, the historian had but 
little to do to record it." And as there are but two 
political events in this period of any great import- 
ance, we place them before us. 

1. " The reign of John Zimisces, emperor of the 
Roman empire, commenced A. D., 969. It was sig- 
nalized by the success of his armies against the 
Russians on the Danube, and the Saracens on the 
Tigris. His general, Bardes, with 12,000 men, 
routed an army of 300,000. John Zimisces was a 
noble Armenian by birth, of uncommon stature, 
strength and beauty and of an heroic soul. He was 
duly proclaimed after the death of his predecessor, 
in accomplishing whose death he is said to have been 
concerned. A just Providence, it would seem, 
awarded him a similar fate by a cup of poison being 
administered to him." 

2. " The landing of William the Conqueror, the 



242 PREDICTIONS 

intrepid Norman, in Britain, occurred A. D., 1066. 
With 60,000 men, he defeated the English under 
Harold in the field of Hastings, and soon after took 
possession of the throne of England, which had been 
previously bequeathed to him by King Edward the 
Confessor. William was Duke of Normandy, and a 
prince illustrious throughout Europe." 

It appears to me that we are to understand, from 
the third part of the sun, moon and stars being dark- 
ened, that a great part of the Church and State, and 
their rulers or ministers, were to be darkened, and 
that for a long period. Historians all agree that the 
Dark Ages, as they are often termed, were of about 
a thousand years' duration. About three hundred 
years, or one third of it, including the periods of the 
fourth and fifth trumpets, was a period of almost 
total moral, political and intellectual darkness. 

" The Dark Ages, as they have been commonly 
called, commenced with this period, A. D,, 500 ; at 
least, the darkness now begins to be particularly ap- 
parent, and we shall find it prevailing over the na- 
tions, though with some intervals of light, nearly 
one thousand years. Ample records, however, of 
the times, and of the state of the human mind, are 
found both in civil and ecclesiastical writers." 

We suppose a single quotation, from ecclesiastical 
history, will fully satisfy the reader that we are cor- 
rect in our interpretation of the facts, characters, ac- 
tions and events of this fourth trumpet period. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 243 

" The state of religion, in this period (from 960 
to 1140), was such as might be expected in a season 
of prevailing ignorance and corruption. Both 
Greeks and Latins placed the essence and life of re- 
ligion in the worship of images and departed saints ; 
in searching after with zeal, and preserving with a 
devout care and veneration the sacred relics of holy 
men and women, and in heaping up riches upon the 
priests and monks, whose opulence increased with 
the progress of error, superstition and idolatry. 
Scarcely did the humble Christian dare to approach 
the throne of a merciful God without first rendering 
the saints and images propitious, by a solemn round 
of expiatory rites and lustrations. The ardor, also, 
with which relics were sought, surpasses almost all 
credibility ; it had seized all ranks and orders of the 
people, and was grown into a sort of fanaticism and 
frenzy ; nor was it conceived to be any diminution of 
the Dignity of the Supreme Being to interpose in 
these discoveries, which, according to the monkish 
legends, were generally made in consequence of some 
miraculous communications to one of the holy fra- 
ternity, or to some supernatural female, who was di- 
rected to the place where the bones of the saint lay 
dispersed or interred. 

" The fears of Purgatory were now carried to the 
greatest extent, and even exceeded the apprehensions 
of infernal torments. It was believed that all must 
necessarily endure the pains of Purgatory, but that 



244 PREDICTIONS 

infernal torments might be easily avoided, provided 
the deceased was enriched with the prayers of the 
clergy, or shielded by the merits and mediations of 
the saints. 

" Among the numerous opinions, however, which 
disgraced the Latin Church, and produced, from time 
to time, such violent agitations, none occasioned such 
a universal panic, nor such dreadful impressions of 
terror or dismay, as a notion that prevailed during 
this century of the immediate approach of the day 
of judgment. Hence prodigious numbers of people 
abandoned all their civil and parental relations, and, 
assigning over to the Church or monasteries all their 
lands, treasuries and worldly effects, repaired, with 
the utmost precipitation, to Palestine, where they 
imagined that Christ would descend from Heaven to 
judge the world. 

" When an eclipse of the sun or moon happened 
to be visible, the cities were deserted, and their 
miserable inhabitants fled for refuge to the moun- 
tains, and hid themselves in caves, and cavities, and 
among the craggy rocks of the wilderness. The 
opulent attempted to bribe the Deity, and his saints, 
by rich donations conferred upon the sacerdotal and 
monastic orders, who were considered as the immed- 
iate vicegerents of Heaven. In many places, temples, 
palaces and noble edifices, both public and private, 
were suffered to decay, were even deliberately pulied 
down, from an opinion that they were no longer of 



OF THE PROPHETS. 245 

any use, since the final dissolution of all things was 
at hand. This general delusion was, indeed, opposed 
by the discerning few who endeavored to dispel these 
groundless terrors, and to efface the notion they 
arose from in the minds of the people. 

" This ignorance of divine truth, was the cause of 
superstition, and that superstition, the source of 
fear, was grown to such an enormous hight, in this 
age, as rendered the creation of new patrons neces- 
sary to calm the anxiety of trembling mortals. 

" The Roman Pontiff, who before this period had 
pretended to the right of creating saints by his sole 
authority and power, offered, in this century, the 
first specimen of this ghostly work; for, in the pre- 
ceding ages, there is no example of his having exer- 
cised this privilege alone. This specimen was given 
A. D., 993, by John XY, who, with all the formali- 
ties of a solemn canonization, enrolled Udalric, bishop 
of Augsburg, in the number of saints, and thus con- 
ferred upon him a title to the worship and veneration 
of all Christians. 

" The number of ceremonies increased in propor- 
tion to the number of these saints, which multiplied 
from day to day, for each new saintly patron had 
appropriated to his service a new festival, a new 
form of worship, a new round of religious rites ; 
and the clergy discovered, in the creation of new 
ceremonies, a wonderful fertility of invention, at- 
tended with the utmost dexterity and artifice. It is 



246 PREDICTIONS 

observable that a great part of these new rites, de- 
rived their origin from the various errors which the 
barbarous nations had received by tradition from their 
pagan ancestors, and still retained, even after their 
conversion to a corrupted Christianity. The clergy, 
instead of extirpating these errors, gave them a 
Christian appearance, either by inventing certain 
religious ceremonies to cover their deformity, or by 
explaining them in a forced, allegorical manner ; and 
thus they have been introduced and perpetuated in 

What is CALLED THE CHURCH, FROM AGE TO AGE." 

If this testimony fails to satisfy the reader that 
the coincidence between the two witnesses, history 
and prophecy, is satisfactory as to facts, characters, 
actions and events, it would be useless to introduce 
any more evidence. A darker period than this, and 
one in which so little was done by Church or State, 
toward impeding the progress of error, superstition, 
image-worship and idolatry, has never been experi- 
enced by mankind; and hence, by common consent, 
this period has obtained the appellation of the Dark 
Ages. 

[V. 13. And I beheld flying through the midst of 
Heaven, and heard an angel saying with a loud voice, 
Wo, wo, wo, to the inhabitants of the earth, by 
reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the 
three angels which are yet to sound !]— I beheld fly- 
ing through the midst of Heaven an eagle ; Heaven 
is put by metonymy for the Church ; so the prophet 



OF THE PROPHETS. 247 

saw one passing with, great power, and as with the 
rapid flight of an eagle, through the midst of the 
Church territory, to prepare them for the events of 
the next trumpet periods. This term eagle, is used, 
in my opinion, also by metonymy, for a subject of 
the eagle, or Roman government; eagle is an appel- 
lation given to the Romans by Christ, when person- 
ally on earth ; for says He, " Where the body is, 
thither will the eagles be gathered together," mean- 
ing, that where the body of the Jews should be, 
thither the Romans would gather together, and de- 
stroy them, as the eagle does his prey. In my 
opinion, this eagle was Peter the Hermit. 

Three dreadful calamities are to curse the earth in 
the next three trumpet periods. The phrase, inhabit- 
ants of the earth, implies that these woful calamities 
were to be very extensive, and that political powers 
and governments which are symbolized by the term 
earth, because they are of the earth, earthy, should 
be especially overwhelmed, and overthrown by these 
dreadful disasters. And we shall see that history 
fully sustains this interpretation, and that there is a 
most satisfactory coincidence between the records of 
the two witnesses, prophecy and history ; and that 
history is the true interpreter as well as witness of 
prophecy, and these are the only witnesses of the 
past or future, whether their testimony has been pre- 
served on parchment, pillars, pyramids, paper, or in 
the everlasting record of the Rocks. 



248 PREDICTIONS 

TVe close our annotations on this chapter by a 
brief quotation from Dr. Adam Clarke's note on 
verse 13 : " Instead of ■ an angel flying.' almost 
every manuscript and version of note has ; an eagle 
flying.' The eagle was the symbol of the Romans, 
and was always on their ensigns. The three woes, 
which are here expressed, were probably to be exe- 
cuted by this people : and the reading, eagle, instead 
of angel, is undoubtedly genuine." This rendering 
of the text makes the whole subject plain and con- 
sistent. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 249 



CHAPTER IX. 

PART THIRD— PERIOD THIRD— Continued. 
FIFTH TRUMPET— FROM 1140 TO 1320. 

At the sounding of the Fifth Trumpet is repre- 
sented the Bottomless Pit, the Abyss, or Great Deep 
being opened, and Locusts coming out of it, signify- 
ing the rise, and the rapid and destructive progress 
of the Crusades. This Trumpet is sounded, it would 
seem, to call into action the powers of the Prince of 
the Air, who rules in the hearts of the children of 
disobedience, to lead men into rebellion against God, 
and set them at variance with each other, and to con- 
tend for wrong instead of right. The first wo was 
$te result of the Crusades, and ended with them. 

SIXTH TRUMPET— FROM A. D., 1320 TO 1500. 

This Trumpet represents Four Angels loosed, 
vhich were bound in the River Euphrates ; signify- 
ing that the sons of Genghis-Khan, the Mogul Tar- 
tar, which were precisely four, should not be bound 
to the country of the Euphrates. By these all Asia 
was conquered; and their successors, after having 
reigned through eight successive monarchies, were 
overthrown, according to the word of the Lord by 
John, after reigning " an hour, and a day, and a 
month, and a year ;" which, taking a prophetic day 
for a common year, is equal to 391 years and 1 month. 



250 PREDICTIONS 

During this period firearms were invented and in- 
troduced into warfare, as foretold in the close of this 
chapter ; and " by these three was the third part of 
men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the 
brimstone, which issued out of their mouths," the 
mouths of cannons, guns and pistols. 

CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL ANNOTATIONS. 

[V. 1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a 
star fall from heaven unto the earth] — The time oc- 
cupied by this angel in sounding his trumpet, is 180 
years, which includes the period of the fifth trum- 
pet, from A. D., 1140 to 1320. 

There is a beautiful idea conveyed to the mind by 
the divine order observed in the opening of the seven 
seals ; the sounding of the seven trumpets ; and the 
pouring out of the seven vials. 

On this hypothesis, there is the most beautiful 
chronological order pervading the whole prophecy of 
which the human mind can possibly conceive ; and 
hereby darkness breaks away before the light; error 
flies before the truth; confusion gives place to order; 
and deformity is changed into heavenly beauty. And 
hence, this book, which has been considered the most 
obscure and bewildering of all the books of the 
Bible, becomes the most beautiful and sublime Hev- 
elation of the dispensations of divine providence, 
and of the conduct and destiny of man, throughout 
time and eternity! 



OF THE PROPHETS. 251 

A star implies, as we have already noticed, a min- 
ister of the Church ; and to fall from heaven, im- 
plies that this minister fell from his steadfastness, 
his high and holy vacation in the Church, unto the 
earth ; that is, he became entangled with the affairs 
of earthly governments. This star, in my opinion, 
was Gregory VII, and his successors in the pontifi- 
cal chair; and by enallage, one being understood 
as a representative number, for all the popes of this 
period. 

[And to him was given the key of the bottomless 
pit] — And to him : this star, the pope ; was given the 
key; by divine permission, he had the key, the 
power of the bottomless pit; the words translated 
bottomless pit, are used in several other places in 
the Bible, to signify the great deep, and are so trans- 
lated. The meaning of the passage, then, is this ; 
the star, the pope, fell to the earth; made political 
or worldly preparations for the extension of the 
kingdom of which he was a high officer. A kingdom, 
however, which its divine founder declared was not 
of this world; and although designed to be aggres- 
sive, was not to be advanced by carnal or worldly 
weapons; but by spiritual weapons, which only are 
mighty, through God, to the pulling down of the 
strongholds of Satan. 

Having the key of the bottomless pit may then 
imply ; that this star was using the power of Satan 
to advance the interests of the Church ; that he was 



252 PREDICTIONS 

using the power of hell, as the word sometimes sig- 
nifies. In a word, this star had power over the great 
ocean, or great deep of human population, in Church 
and State, and used it for an improper purpose. 

[Y. 2. And he opened the bottomless pit] — The 
beginning of strife is as the breaking forth of waters ; 
for no one can tell what will be the event; for it is 
easy to start, but hard to stop. So this star ojoened 
the way that gave vent to this great deep of human 
passion, which, when once started, moved on like the 
resistless waves of the ocean, in the woful Crusades. 

1. [And there arose smoke out of the pit] — " By 
their fruits ye shall know them," said the author of 
this Revelation, when incarnate among men, so he 
reiterates the same great truth again. Smoke is the 
fruit of fire ; it is the evidence that fire produces it, 
as the apple evinces that it is produced by the apple 
tree. Then the whole course pursued by this ocean 
of population, was corrupt and cruel, wrong and 
ruinous, as to the spiritual interests of the Church. 

2. [As the smoke of a great furnace] — Giving the 
most convincing evidence that there was great heat 
of passion; that the whole course of nature was 
on fire, and that it was set on fire of hell. — James iii, 6. 

3. [And the sun and the air were darkened] — 
Darkness covered the sun, the rulers in Church and 
State; and gross darkness the air, the people — all 
the people of every sort had their foolish hearts 
darkened by this smoke — this evidence that his 



OF THE PROPHETS. 253 

Satanic majesty had given them, that they would be 
doing God service though they should do that which 
was directly opposed to the commandments of Heaven. 
That wisdom which is from above is first pure, then 
peaceable, easy entreated, full of good fruits ; but 
this wisdom was from beneath — it was the very op- 
posite in character ; it was impure, warlike, not easily 
entreated, implacable, and full of evil fruits. 

[V. 3. And there came out of the smoke locusts 
upon the earth] — This smoke or evidence caused 
men to come forth like locusts upon the earth; they 
came forth in great numbers and for a destructive 
purpose. They were to go forth to destroy, as that 
is the sole purpose for which locusts exercise their 
power, beyond what is merely necessary to perpetu- 
ate life. They were going to inflict wounds, as indi- 
cated by the fiery flying Serpent of hell, instead of 
going forth as directed by the good Physician, to 
pour the balm of Gilead into the wounds already 
inflicted by the powers of the bottomless pit. 

[V. 9. They had breast plates] — Means of defense 
as well as offense, and of a most powerful character, 
as it were of iron, which subdues and breaks in pieces 
all other metals. So, these warriors were resolved 
to break in pieces, and subdue all who opposed their 
ostentatious claims. 

[And the sound of their wings] — As wings are the 
means of motion, and the cause of noise in the 
flight of birds, so the means of motion and cause of 
22 



254 PREDICTIONS 

noise in this overwhelming army, were chariots, and 
the sound of chariots, as of many horses running to 
battle. 

[Y. 10. And they had tails like unto scorpions] 
— While the kings and cardinals, the crowned heads, 
rode in chariots, and went with the cavalry, and had 
the most powerful offensive and defensive armor of 
their age, the tail, those which came behind, the in- 
fantry, were equipped only with bows and poisoned 
arrows or spears, the simplest and rudest implements 
of warfare. These armies were led and guided by 
kings with golden crowns, and the infantry, the vast 
multitude of the army, were urged on by false priests 
or prophets; who, in Scripture, are called the tail; 
so these false priests which urged the Crusades were 
tails. And their power was to hurt men five months, 
or 150 common years. 

[V. 11. And they had a king over them] — There 
was a king over all these kings and cardinals, priests 
and people, who was the efficient cause of all this 
deception, toilsome preparation, and woful destruc- 
tion. This king is known among Jews and Gentiles ; 
his name in the Hebrew tongue is Abbadan, but in 
the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon; by 
whatever name he may be known, his character is 
ever the same; he is the enemy of God and man, 
the father of lies, the deceiver and destroyer of man- 
kind. Never did any king more fully accomplish his 
purpose than prince Apollyon in this enterprise. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 255 

[V. 12. One wo is past] — Whenever these cru- 
sades, and calamitous warfares end; and hence this 
wo is already past, as we shall satisfactorily show 
by brief quotations from three witnesses. This fifth 
trumpet period, at the commencement of which prep- 
arations for the Crusades begin, was marked by some 
peculiar characteristics in addition to the general 
darkness of the Middle Ages ; as, the passion for 
pilgrimage ; the exploits of chivalry ; and the pro- 
duction of romances. The lights of science were 
very rare, and barbarism, idolatry, and turbulence 
reigned over most of the nations. 

1. "The commencement of the Crusades to the 
Holy Land, is dated A. D. 1095. The Crusades were 
self-styled religious wars, waged by Christian Europe, 
chiefly against the Turks or Mahommedans, with a 
view to recover Palestine from their hands. There 
were five expeditions of the kind, which during this 
period drained from Europe most of its life-blood 
and treasures. They failed entirely as to their ultimate 
object, though some of their results were important. 

"The Turks, or Turcomans, a race of Tartars, 
having taken Bagdat, A. D. 1055, Palestine and Je- 
rusalem were, of course, under the sway of Turks 
and their religion. 

" In this situation of things, the resort of pilgrims 
to the tomb of our Saviour was necessarily ren- 
dered vexatious to them — a circumstance, in those 
times, of sufficient magnitude to arouse all 



256 PREDICTIONS 

Europe for the deliverance of Jerusalem from the 
Infidels. 

" In the First Crusade, an army of eighty thou- 
sand men, led by Peter the Hermit, was destroyed; 
but the army that followed, consisting of several 
hundred thousand, under the command of Godfrey, 
had^he good fortune to conquer Syria and Palestine, 
which they held for several years. 

" In this situation they found it necessary to solicit 
aid from Europe; and accordingly another crusade, 
A. D. 1146, set out from the West of Europe, 
amounting to two hundred thousand men, under 
Hugh, brother of the French king. But these met 
with the same fate which attended the army of Peter. 
Another army of three hundred thousand soon fol- 
lowed, and was soon dissipated and destroyed. 

" In the meantime, the Infidels, under Saladin, had 
recovered Palestine from the Christians. Europe 
felt the indignity, and France, England and Germany, 
each sent forth an army, headed by its own sovereign. 
On the Lion-Hearted Richard I. of England the 
weight of the contest at length rested, and he de- 
feated the illustrious Saladin on the plains of Askelon. 

The Fourth Crusade, A. D., 1202, was directed, 
not against the Infidels, but against the Greek Em- 
pire. Constantinople was taken, and held by the 
Crusaders, consisting of the French, and the Vene- 
tians, for a number of years." The result we shall 
soon learn. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 257 

The object of the Fifth Crusade was to lay waste 
Egypt, in revenge for an attack on Palestine, by its 
Sultan. This expedition was, like all the rest, ruin- 
ous in the end, 

[V. 4. And it was commanded them that they 
should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any 
green thing, neither any tree ; but only those men 
which have not the seal of God in their foreheads] — 
This command appears to contain the prudent coun- 
sels of an experienced general to his army; not to 
injure or destroy anything, small or great, which 
might be necessary, in their campaigns, either for 
man or beast. But the primary sense of the text, 
in my opinion, expresses the very purpose for which 
this overwhelming army was organized and set in 
motion. We have already noticed that grass, trees, 
etc., symbolize men ; and that green grass and trees 
symbolize Christian men, or at least those who have 
the outward sign or seal of Christians, if not the 
inward life. 

The substance and spirit of the command was, 
that this mighty army, numerous and destructive as 
locusts, should not hurt any Christian who had re- 
ceived the seal of God in their foreheads, at the time 
when they made an open confession of their faith in 
Christ, and had received the visible symbols and or- 
dinance of the Gospel by baptism. This prophecy 
is designed to give us an account of the times, char- 
acters, actions, implements and events of the Cru- 



258 PREDICTIONS 

sades, the ostensible object of which was not to hurt 
any Christian, of whatever name, but only those men 
who had not submitted to the Gospel ; and hence, the 
Saracens, Mohammedans and Jews were the special 
objects against whom the Crusaders directed thoir 
powerful and destructive warfare. 

[V. 5. And to them it was given, that they should 
not kill them ; but that they should be tormented five 
months ; and their torment was as the torment of a 
scorpion, when he stingeth a man] — And to them — - 
the Crusades, it was given; that is, it was appointed, 
and so ordered by the overruling providence of God, 
that they should not kill them ; that is, the Crusaders 
should not exterminate the Jews, Saracens and Mo- 
nammedans ; but that they should be tormented five 
months by the Crusaders; that is, they were to be 
miserably treated, and some tormented and harassed 
out of their lives by the Crusaders ; and this state 
of things was to be continued five prophetic months — 
equal to one hundred and fifty years, ordinary 
time. 

But their own torment, the misery, affliction and 
extreme anguish of the Crusaders, during this five 
months' period, was as the torment of a scorpion. 
The torment, and the scorpion, were implements of 
ancient warfare ; the former was for throwing stones — 
the latter was a poisoned arrow ; both very dreadful 
in their effects, even as dreadful as the sting of a 
scorpion, when he stingeth a man ; for these arrow 



OF THE PROPHETS. 259 

points were covered with fatal poison, which remained 
in the wound, causing certain death. 

[V. 6. And in those days shall men seek death, 
and shall not find it ; and shall desire to die, and 
death shall flee from them] — Those days were the 
days of the first wo, beginning and ending with the 
Crusades. 

Men shall seek death ; seek to inflict death upon 
their enemies ; but they shall be disappointed in this ; 
for it was given or ordained that they should not kill 
them. The sum is this : the Crusaders shall seek to 
exterminate their enemies ; but in this they shall be 
disappointed, and in the midst of the calamities 
which shall encompass them, they would rather die 
than live such a lingering death. Job expresses this 
same sentiment in the most plaintive and beautiful 
manner, as the reader will see by reference to Job 
iii, 20-26. 

[V. 7 to 12. Here is an explanation to the pre- 
vious part of the chapter, showing the leaders or in- 
stigators of the holy war, as it was termed ; the 
characters, the actions, the implements of war and 
the events; and beyond all, that the warfare was in- 
stigated by the devil, or Satan, who is the deceiver 
and destroyer of mankind ; and never did he succeed 
to greater advantage in these purposes, and never 
did the inhabitants- of earth, that part, at least, which 
was the theater of their transactions, ever suffer a 
more woful calamity ; and hence, with the Crusades, 



260 PREDICTIONS 

one wo is past. Behold there conieth two woes more 
hereafter. 

It will be our purpose now to show, from civil and 
sacred history, that the positions we have taken are 
correct. 

We are told that these locusts symbolized horses 
prepared for battle, implying their great numbers, 
their speed and their destructive progress. And this 
power was led on by crowned heads ; that kings and 
cardinals, crowned and mitered heads, were the 
leaders of these Crusaders, or self-styled holy war- 
riors. And their faces were as the faces of men; 
they put on the appearance of making preparations 
for a rational and manly enterprise. 

[And they had hair as the hair of women] that 
is to say, women enlisted into this warfare, and went 
with the army, and men were so engrossed and en- 
gaged in the toils of warfare, that like women, they 
let all their hair grow; no razor came upon them; 
they had no time or opportunity to attend to their 
toilet in this regard. "Women joined in the crusades 
with all the enthusiasm of men. 

As this prophecy of the Crusades embraces 150 
years, we shall now proceed to lay the facts of this 
period before the reader to a greater extent than at 
first intended, and leave him to form opinions for 
himself. 

" The Popes, from Sylvester II, had been forming 
plans for extending the limits of the Church in Asia, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 261 

and especially for expelling the Mohammedans from 
Palestine; but the troubles in which Europe had 
been so long involved, prevented the execution of 
these arduous plans. Gregory VII, the most enter- 
prising of all the pontiffs that ever filled the Apos- 
tolic chair, animated and inflamed by the complaints 
which the Asiatic Christians made of the cruelty of 
the Saracens, resolved to undertake in person a holy 
war for the overthrow of Mohammedanism, and the 
deliverance of the Church; and upward of 50,000 
men were mustered to follow him in this bold expe- 
dition, in the year A. D., 1080. But his quarrel 
with the emperor Henry IV, of Germany, and other 
unforeseen occurrences, obliged him to lay aside his 
intended invasion of the Holy Land." 

" The crusade enterprise, however, first attempted 
by Gregory VII, was renewed, toward the conclusion 
of this century, by the enthusiastic zeal of an in- 
habitant of Amiens, who was known by the name 
Peter the Hermit, and who suggested to Pope Urban 
II, the means of accomplishing what had been un- 
fortunately suspended, by the death of Gregory VII, 
A. D., 1085." 

" When Peter painted the sufferings of the natives 
and pilgrims of Palestine, every heart was melted to 
compassion ; every breast glowed with indignation, 
when he challenged the warriors of the age to de- 
fend their brethren, and rescue the Holy Sepulcher. 
His ignorance of art and language was compensated 
23 



262 PREDICTIONS 

by sighs, and tears, and ejaculations; and he sup- 
plied the deficiency of reason by loud and frequent 
appeals to Christ and his mother, and to the saints 
and angels in Paradise. 

" The minds of the people being thus prepared by 
the exhortations of the Hermit, A. D., 1095, the 
Pontiff recommended warmly, for the first time, the 
sacred expedition against the infidel Saracens. But 
this arduous enterprise was far from being approved 
by the greater part of this numerous assembly, not- 
withstanding the presence at the emperor's legates. 
Though disappointed at Placentia, Urban renewed 
his proposal for a holy war, in a council which was 
afterward assembled at Clermont, where he himself 
was present. The pompous and pathetic speech 
which he delivered on the occasion, made a deep and 
powerful impression on the minds of the French. 

" An incredible multitude among whom were many 
of rank, devoted themselves to the service of the 
Cross, which was made the symbol of the expedition, 
and which, worked in red worsted, was worn upon 
the breast or shoulders of the adventurers ; and 
hence, the name Crusade. Every exertion was used 
by the Court of Rome to increase the numbers. A 
plenary indulgence was proclaimed in the Council of 
Clermont to those who should enlist under the ban- 
ner of the Cross, and a full absolution of all their 
sins. 

" The loth of August, 1096, had been fixed, in 



OF THE PBOPHETS. 263 

the Council of Clermont, for the departure of the 
pilgrims ; but the day was anticipated by a thought- 
less and needy crowd of plebeians. Early in the 
spring of the year, from the confines of France and 
Lorraine, about 60,000 of the populace, of both 
sexes, flocked around the standard of the first mis- 
sionary of the Crusade, Peter the Hermit, and 
pressed him with clamorous importunity to lead 
them on to the Holy Sepulcher. 

" Their wants and numbers soon compelled them 
to separate, and his lieutenant, Walter the Penni- 
less, a valiant, though needy soldier, conducted a 
vanguard of pilgrims, whose condition may be im- 
agined from the proportion of eight horsemen to 
15,000 foot. The example and footsteps of Peter 
were soon followed and closely pursued by another 
fanatic, the monk Godschald, whose sermons had 
swept away 20,000 peasants from the villages of 
Germany." (Now we come to what the Prophet calls 
the tails). 

" Their rear was again pressed by a herd of 200,000, 
the most stupid and savage refuse of the people, 
who mingled with their devotion a brutal license of 
rapine and drunkenness. Some counts and gentle- 
men, on horse, at the head of another army of 
300,000 Crusaders, attended the movements of the 
multitude merely to partake of the spoil. But their 
genuine leaders (may we credit such folly?) were a 
goose and a goat I which were carried in the front, 



264 PREDICTIONS 

and to whom these worthy Christians ascribed an 
infusion of the Divine Spirit. 

" Of this rabble more than two thirds were con- 
sumed by the Hungarians, by famine, or fever, dur- 
ing their journey. In the plain of Nice they were 
overwhelmed by the Turkish arrows ; and from the 
beginning to the end of this expedition, three hun- 
dred thousand perished before a single city was 
rescued from the Infidels, and before their graver 
and more noble brethren had completed their pre- 
parations. 

" The armies, which were conducted by illustrious 
commanders, distinguished hj their birth and by 
their military endowments, arrived more happily to 
the capital of the Grecian empire. That which was 
commanded by Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lor- 
raine, who deserves a place among the greatest 
heroes, whether of ancient or modern times, and by 
his brother Baldwin, was composed of eighty thou- 
sand w ell-chosen troops, horse and foot, and directed 
his march through Germany and Hungary. An- 
other, which was led by Raymond, earl of Toulouse, 
passed through the Sclavonian territories. 

" Robert, earl of Flanders ; Robert, duke of Nor- 
mandy ; Hugo, brother of Philip I, king of Prance, 
embarked their respective forces in a fleet, which 
was assembled at Brundisi and Tarento, whence 
they were transported to Druazzo, anciently Dy- 
rachium. These armies were followed by Boe- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 265 

mond, duke of Apulia and Calabria, at the head of 
a chosen and numerous body of valiant Normans. 
This whole army was one of the greatest, and, in 
outward appearance, one of the most formidable that 
had been known in the memory of man. 

" The first successful enterprise which was formed 
against the infidels w T as the siege of Nice, the capi- 
tal of Bythinia. This city was taken in the year 
1099, and the victorious army proceeded then into 
Syria, and in the following year subdued Antioch, 
which, with its fertile territory, was granted by the 
assembled chiefs to Bosmond, duke of Apulia. 

" Edessa fell next into the hands of the victors, 
and became the property of Baldwin, brother to 
Godfrey of Bouillon. The conquest of Jerusalem, 
wdiich, after a siege of five weeks, submitted to their 
arms, in the year 1099, seemed to crown their expe- 
dition with the desired success. In this city were 
laid the foundations of a new kingdom, at the head 
of which was placed the famous Godfrey, whom the 
army saluted King of Jerusalem, with a unanimous 
voice. 

" Splendid as were these holy wars in appearance, 
however, they were not less prejudicial to the cause 
of religion, and the true interests of the Christian 
Church, than they were to the temporal concerns of 
men. One of the first and most pernicious effects 
was the most enormous augmentation of the influence 
and authority of the Roman pontiffs ; they also con- 



266 PREDICTIONS 

tributed in various ways to enrich the churches and 
monasteries with daily accessions of wealth, and to 
open new sources of opulence to all the ecclesiastic 
orders. 

2. "The new kingdom of Jerusalem appeared to 
nourish at first and to rest upon firm and solid foun- 
dations. This prosperous scene was, however, but 
transitory, and was soon succeeded by the most ter- 
rible calamities and desolations. The fortitude of the 
faithful forsook them not in this exigence ; the coun- 
try they had acquired by valor they defended with 
perseverance, till Attabec Zenghi, after a long siege, 
conquered Edessa and menaced Antioch with a sim- 
ilar fate. 

" In this perilous situation the Christians became 
timid and diffident, and implored, in the most de- 
sponding strains, the assistance of the European 
princes, and requested, a fresh army to support their 
tottering empire, or kingdom of Jerusalem, in the 
Holy land. 

"Bernard, the celebrated abbot of Clarval, was a 
man of the boldest resolution and of the greatest au- 
thority. This eloquent and zealous ecclesiastic 
preached the Cross with much ardor and success; 
and in a grand parliament assembled at Vezelia, 1116., 
at which Louis VII, king of France, with his queen 
and a prodigious concourse of the nobility were pres- 
ent, Bernard recommended this holy expedition with 
such persuasive powers, that the king, and the queen 



OF THE PROPHETS. 267 

and all the nobles, immediately put on the military 
cross and prepared themselves for the voyage to 
Palestine. The orator next directed his exhortations 
to Conrad III, emperor of Germany, who, for some 
time, resisted his fervent solicitations. 

"He at length complied; and such was the pa- 
thetic vehemence of the tone and gestures of the in- 
defatigable Bernard, that a phlegmatic people, who 
were ignorant of his language, were induced to fol- 
low their sovereign to the fields of Palestine. The 
nobles of France and Germany were animated by the 
example and presence of their sovereigns, and Louis 
YII and Conrad III were followed by armies which 
might have claimed the conquest of Asia. 

" Their united cavalry was composed of 70,000 
knights and their attendants; and the whole number, 
including women and children, is computed to have 
amounted to at least 400,000 souls. As it was im- 
possible to procure necessaries for such numbers in 
the countries through which they were to pass, each 
army pursued a different road. But before their 
arrival in the Holy Land, their forces were melted 
away, having perished miserably by famine, by ship- 
wreck, and by the sword of the Mohammedans, or by 
the perfidious cruelty of the Greeks, who regarded, 
with acrimony and dread, these rude and intrepid 
pilgrims as intruders in their land. 

"Louis VII, who had left his kingdom in 1147, in 
the month of March the following year, arrived at 



268 PREDICTIONS 

Antioch with the wretched remains of his army, ex- 
hausted and dejected by the hardships and calamities 
they had endured. Conrad III, departed also in the 
year 1147, in the month of May, and in November 
following he arrived at Nice, where he joined the 
French army, after having lost the greater part of 
his own, by a succession of calamities. 

" From Nice the two princes proceeded to Jerusa- 
lem, A. D. 1148, whence they led back into Europe 
the following year, 1149, the miserable remnant of 
troops, which had survived the disasters they had 
met with in this expedition. Such was the unhappy 
issue of the second Crusade, which was rendered in- 
effectual from a variety of causes, but more particu- 
larly by the jealousies and divisions which distracted 
themselves as Christians in Palestine. Nor was it 
more ineffectual in Palestine, than it was detrimental 
to Europe, by drawing the wealth of its fairest prov- 
inces, and destroying such immense numbers of its 
inhabitants. The unfortunate event of this second 
expedition was not, however, sufficient, when con- 
sidered alone, to render the affairs of the Christians 
in Palestine entirely desperate. 

" Had their chiefs and princes laid aside their an- 
imosities and contentions ; had they attacked the 
common enemy with their united forces, they would 
have repaired their losses, and recovered their glory. 
But a contrary course of conduct was pursued. 
(And by it the prophecy was also fulfilled; for it 



OE THE PROPHETS. 269 

was given to them, that they should not kill them ; 
but that they should torment them five months, 150 
years.) By intestine quarrels, jealousies, and dis- 
cords, they weakened their efforts against the ene- 
mies who surrounded them, and consumed their 
strength by unhappily dividing it. 

8. The third expedition was undertaken in 1189 
by Frederick I, surnamed Barbarossa, emperor of 
Germany, who, with a prodigious army, marched 
through several Grecian provinces, where he had in- 
numerable difficulties and obstacles to overcome in 
Lesser Asia, whence, after having defeated the Sul- 
tan of Iconium, he penetrated into Syria. His valor 
and conduct promised successful and glorious cam- 
paigns to the army he commanded, when, by an un- 
happy accident he lost his life in the river Saleph, 
which runs through Seleucia. And in consequence 
of it, considerable numbers of them returned to Eu- 
rope. Those that remained continued the war under 
the command of Frederick, son of the deceased em- 
peror ; but the greater part of them perished misera- 
bly by a pestilential disorder, which raged with 
fatal violence in the camp, and swept oiF vast num- 
bers every day. 

The example of Frederick Barbarossa was fol- 
lowed in the year 1190 by Phillip Augustus, king 
of France, and Richard I, king of England (called 
by way of eminence, Richard Coeur de Leon ; that is 
Richard, the lion-hearted.) 



270 PREDICTIONS 

Deserted by the French and Italians, and influ- 
enced, however, by other motives and considerations 
of essential importance, Richard concluded, A. D., 
1192, with Saladin, a truce of three years, three 
months and three days, and soon evacuated Pales- 
tine with his whole army. Such was the issue of the 
third expedition against the Infidels, which exhausted 
England, France and Germany, both of men and 
money, without producing any solid advantage, or 
giving even a favorable turn to the affairs of the 
Christians in the Holy Land. 

4. " The Roman pontiffs employed their most 
zealous and assiduous efforts to promote a fourth 
crusade, in support of the Christian cause in Pales- 
tine, which was now in a most declining, or rather 
in a desperate state. 

" In consequence of their importunities and re- 
monstrances, a new army was raised, and a new ex- 
pedition undertaken, which was to be commanded by 
the emperor Frederick II, of Germany, who was 
successively the pupil, the enemy and the victim of 
the Church. At the age of twenty-one years he as- 
sumed the cross, and devoted himself by a solemn 
vow to the accomplishment of this expedition. His 
engagement received additional strength, such as it 
appeared impossible to violate, from the marriage 
which he had contracted, A. D., 1223, with Jolanda, 
daughter of John, surnamed Have-Nothing, count 
of Brienne and king of Jerusalem, by which alliance 



OP THE PROPHETS. 271 

that kingdom was to be added to his European do- 
minions. Notwithstanding this, the expedition of 
the emperor was repeatedly deferred, under various 
pretexts, and did not take place till A. D., 1228, 
when, after having been excommunicated, on account 
of his delay, by the incensed pontiff, Gregory IX, 
Frederick proceeded with a small train of attendants 
to the troops who expected, with the most anxious 
impatience, his arrival in Palestine. 

" No sooner, however, did the emperor reach that 
disputed kingdom, than he turned all his thoughts 
toward peace, and partly from the discord of the 
Mohammedans, and partly from their personal es- 
teem for him, he Was enabled to conclude an advan- 
tageous treaty with the Sultan of Egypt, in the fol- 
lowing year. 

" Ity this treaty he obtained possession of the city 
and kingdom of Jerusalem, of Tyre and Sidon; and 
entering into the holy city with unparalleled pomp, 
and accompanied by a numerous train, he placed the 
crown upon his own head with his own hands. Hav- 
ing regulated, with much prudence and moderation, 
the government of Palestine, Frederick returned 
without delay into Italy, to appease the discords and 
commotions, which the vindictive and ambitious pon- 
tiff had excited in his absence. In reality, therefore, 
notwithstanding all the reproaches which were cast 
upon the emperor by the Pope and his agents, this 
expedition was by far the most successful that had 



272 PREDICTIONS 

hitherto heen undertaken against the Infidels ; evinc- 
ing, that the practice of peace is as superior to that 
of war, as the heavens are higher than the earth." 

These Crusaders have tormented man nearly five 
months, and from the time of Frederick, hut one 
more expedition was attempted, and with it the five 
months or 150 years end. 

5. " After this solitary effort by the emperor 
Frederick II, the affairs of the Christians in the 
East perceptibly declined; and intestine discords 
and ill-conducted expeditions had reduced them to 
the last extremity, when one more Crusade, and the 
last one, was attempted for their restoration by Louis 
IX, king of France. This enterprise was in conse- 
quence of a vow, which the prince had made in the 
year 1248, when he was seized with a painful and 
dangerous illness. 

" He soon undertook the arduous task, and in the 
execution of it, he embarked for Egypt with a for- 
midable army and a numerous fleet. 

" The first attempts of the zealous monarch were 
crowned with victory. The celebrated city of Da- 
iniella yielded to his power. But the prospect was 
soon changed, and the progress of the war presented 
one uniform scene of calamity and desolation. The 
united horrors of war, famine and pestilence, over- 
whelmed the royal army, whose provisions were cut 
off by the Mohammedans. 

" In the year A. D., 1250, Robert, earl of Artois, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 273 

the king's own brother, having surprised the Saracen 
army, and, through an excess of valor, pursued them 
too far, was slain in the engagement; and a few days 
after the king himself, with two more of his brothers, 
and the greater part of his army, were taken prison- 
ers in a severe action, after a bold and obstinate re- 
sistance. He was ransomed at an immense price 
(about 190,000 pounds sterling, or about 950,000 
dollars), and after having spent about four years in 
Palestine, returned into France in A. D., 1254, with 
a handful of men, the miserable remains of his once 
mighty army. Louis was the last of the European 
princes who embarked in the Holy War, or Crusade. 
The dangers and difficulties, the woful calamities 
and pestilential disorders, disgusted the most zealous, 
discouraged the most intrepid, and disheartened the 
most liberal promoters of these fanatical expedi- 
tions." 

From the time these Crusaders had fairly begun 
their work of torment in 1099, to 1250, the date 
when the work of torment ceased was precisely five 
months, or 150 years. But if it is insisted that their 
torment began 3 years earlier, it will still be pre- 
cisely 5 months, by allowing 3 of the months to have 
31 years, which is also correct. " The first success- 
ful enterprise which was formed against the Infidels, 
was the siege of Nice, the capital of Bithynia, which 
was taken in the year 1097." Now, in five months, 
counted consecutively, from January, April, or Sep- 



274 PREDICTIONS 

teinber, there are precisely 153 days. So, then in 
five months, where a day is taken by the prophets 
for a year, we must expect to find 153 years. Hence, 
153 years added to 1097, make precisely 1250, the 
very year in which the last Crusade tormented men, 
for it was in this year that Louis IX, of France, was 
taken prisoner; and says the history already cited, 
" Louis was the last of the European princes who 
embarked in the Holy Wars." Here, then, is one 
of the most remarkable prophecies in the annals of 
time : and its historical coincidence and fulfillment 
are not excelled in the records of the past. 

It is true that God maketh the wrath of man to 
praise him, and overrules that which was intended 
for evil, for the good and happiness of the children 
of men. 

" It is therefore some compensation for these 
calamities, that something was gained in science, 
and freedom, and commerce, by these warlike pil- 
grims. The arts and manufactories of the East were 
introduced into Europe, and a spirit of enterprise, 
which probably led more largely to the cultivation 
of commerce, was excited. Before the era of the 
Crusades the larger portion of the inhabitants of 
Europe was chained to the soil, without freedom, or 
property, or knowledge ; and the two orders of ec- 
clesiastics and nobles, whose numbers were compara- 
tively small, alone deserve the name of citizens and 
men. This oppressive system was supported by the 



OF THE PROPHETS. 275 

arts of the clergy, and the swords of the barons. 
The authority of the priests operated indeed in the 
darker ages as a salutary antidote. They prevented 
the total extinction of letters; mitigated the fierce- 
ness of the times ; sheltered the poor and houseless ; 
and preserved or revived the peace and order of civil 
society. But the independence, rapine and discord 
of the feudal lords, were unmixed with any sem- 
blance of good ; and every hope of industry and 
improvement was crushed by the iron weight of the 
martial aristocracy. Among the causes that under- 
mined that Gothic edifice, the feudal system, a con- 
spicuous place must be allowed to the Crusades. The 
estates of barons were dissipated, and their race was 
often extinguished in these costly and perilous expe- 
ditions. Their poverty extorted from their pride, 
those charters of freedom which unlocked the fetters 
of the slave ; secured the farm of the peasants, and 
the shop of the artificer ; and gradually restored a 
substance and a soul to the most numerous and use- 
ful part of the community.- The conflagration which 
destroyed the tall and barren trees of the forest, 
gave air and scope to the vegetation of the smaller 
and nutritive plants of the soil." — Gibbon. 

The importunate zeal for crusades, however, was 
kept alive by the rulers of the Church of Rome for 
more than a century after the Crusade by Louis ; 
and the succession of pontiffs, who resided at Avig- 
non, were particularly zealous for the renovation of 



276 PREDICTIONS 

the holy war; and left no artifice, no methods of 
persuasion, no offers of plenary indulgence unem- 
ployed, which could have the least tendency to en- 
gage the kings of England and France in new expe- 
ditions to Palestine; but their success, however, 
was not answerable to their zeal, and, notwithstand- 
ing the powerful influence of their exhortations and 
remonstrances, something continually occurred to pre- 
vent their effect; clearly evincing that His hand con- 
trolled the affairs of men, who has said, " Not one 
jot or one tittle of my word shall fail, but all shall 
be fulfilled" precisely as I have predicted by my 
prophets. 

[V. 13. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard 
a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which 
is before God] — The sixth angel sounds his trumpet 
to call forth the warriors of a different empire to 
that of the fifth trumpet period; and hence we shall, 
for the present, bid farewell to Europe, or the West- 
ern empire, and follow this angel into the land sym- 
bolized by the great river Euphrates, whose waters 
refresh the thirsty millions of Asia. This trumpet 
sounds, then, to call the warriors of Asia into action, 
who, during all the calamities of Europe were hold- 
ing to the horns of the altar, were protected by the 
providence of God in Christ, who is the golden altar, 
the high priest of the whole human family. There 
may be an allusion here to the Eastern or Greek 
Church, which was comparatively pure in doctrine 



OF THE PROPHETS. 277 

and faithful in practice. This voice is from this 
golden altar; it is a command from Christ to the 
sixth angel, and the injunction is contained in the 
following verse : 

[V. 14. Saying to the sixth angel, which had the 
trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in 
the great river Euphrates] — These four angels are 
evidently the four sons of Genghis-Khan, for, w T e 
are to understand by angel, an agent or king, and, 
by enallage, one is put for a succession of them. 
The four angels bound in the river Euphrates, are 
the four kings and their successors in their king- 
doms. This sixth angel begins to sound the sixth 
trumpet in the very year the fifth angel ceases to 
sound his trumpet for the Crusades ; therefore these 
four sons of the Asiatic conqueror enter upon their 
respective portions of the vast dominions which had 
been allotted to them in the year A. D., 1250, by 
their father. 

During their minority they had remained within 
the country of the Euphrates, the place of their pa- 
ternal residence ; now they go forth to subdue to 
their dominion all Asia, east, west, north, and south; 
China, India, Persia, and Asiatic Russia. 

[V. 15. And the four angels were loosed which 
w T ere prepared for an hour and a day, and a month 
and a year, for to slay the third part of men] — This 
time is to be interpreted as prophetic time. An 
hour is one month, and a day is one year ; and a 
24 



278 PREDICTIONS 

month is thirty years : and a year is three hundred 
and sixty prophetic days, or common years. And 
now, if we add all together, we shall have 360 + 30 
-f- 1 = 391 common years, and one month. Now 
we have ascertained that the fortunes of war had 
turned in favor of Asia, in 1250, the date of the last 
Crusade by Louis IX, king of France. Therefore 
we conclude that the sixth angel makes preparations 
to sound his trumpet at this period, and begins to 
sound the alarm of war in the land of the Euphrates, 
with a full and certain sound, by A. D. 1320, the 
end of the fifth trumpet period. The sixth trumpet 
period, therefore, is to embrace one hundred and 
eighty years, the time from A. J). 1320 to 1500, when 
this period will end. 

These four angels, the four sons of Gengis-Kahn, 
which were loosed from the country of the Euphrates, 
were to reign in regular succession three hundred 
and ninety-one years and one month, as stated by 
the Prophet ; and we shall see a most perfect coinci- 
dence; they began their conquests in 1250, and 
reigned without a rival through eight successive mon- 
archies: and under the ninth, they were overthrown, 
in 1611, which is precisely three hundred and ninety- 
one years ; and if profane history was as accurate as 
sacred prophecy, we should be informed that they 
reigned also the one month. None but an infinite 
mind could have foretold these events with such per- 
fect precision, as history and prophecy prove. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 279 

The term " slay," I apprehend, is used, by meton- 
ymy, and implies that these four angels, and their 
successors, were to have absolute control over Asia, 
■which is the third part of mankind ; these conquer- 
ors, then, were to have the power of life and death 
over their subjects for three hundred and ninety-one 
years, as foretold by prophecy, and the fact fully 
sustained by history. 

[Y. 16. And the number of the army of the 
horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand; and 
I heard the number of them] — The number of the 
army, then, was two hundred millions. I understand 
the term, army, to be a metonymy for the people 
from whom the horsemen or warriors proceeded ; 
and this common-sense view coincides with the style 
of the book, and the statistics of Asia, which show 
the population to have been equal to this number in 
the middle of the thirteenth century. God, who 
numbers the very hairs of our heads, numbers the 
nations, as the shepherd his sheep, and tells all our 
outgoings and incomings; and to the Prophet the 
number of this mighty empire was told; so that he 
heard the number of them, and could assert it with 
all confidence, as being the exact number of the na- 
tions inhabiting the territories of Asia, in this trum- 
pet period. 

[V. 17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, 
and them that sat on them, having breast-plates of 
fire, and jacinth, and brimstone; and the heads of 



280 PREDICTIONS 

the horses were as the heads of lions, and out of 
their mouths issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone] 
— The prophet saw the horses in the vision, as well 
as heard the number of the inhabitants of the empire, 
which sent forth this cavalry to war. This cavalry 
had defensive armor, symbolized by breast-plates. 
These breast-plates or defensive weapons, were a 
combination of fire, jacinth, and brimstone : red, blue, 
and yellow. 

The fire was red ; the smoke blue ; and the brass 
cannon mostly used, yellow. Is not this an emblem- 
atic representation of firearms? Here is fire; in 
the old-fashioned suns was the frizzen, the steel, 
against which the flint struck to make fire. The flint 
is a species of stone resembling the hyacinth, or 
agate, and hyacinth is evidently used by metonymy 
for flint; and this interpretation coincides precisely 
with the style of this book; and hence we must 
understand the style of the author, if we would in- 
terpret his meaning. And brimstone is also used by 
metonymy for gunpowder, as its presence is sensible, 
both by the sight and smell, in gunpowder, which is 
compounded of brimstone, charcoal and saltpeter; 
but brimstone is the most noticeable ingredient in 
the compound, and therefore justly entitles it to the 
name given it by the prophet in this Revelation. 

We have one more fact which settles it beyond a 
doubt that firearms are intended. It was in this 
period, the sixth trumpet period, that firearms were 



OF THE PROPHETS. 281 

invented, and first used as defensive and destructive 
military weapons. Under the former trumpet, the 
weapons of the warrior were the torment and scor- 
pion, terms used by metonymy for slings, bows and 
arrows. 

And in whatever direction the cavalry turned their 
heads or their faces, they were as terrible, compara- 
tively, as lions ; for figuratively speaking, destruc- 
tion issued from their faces ; from their guns, which 
were held to their faces, issued fire and smoke, and 
the smell of sulphur ; the fire and smoke were seen ; 
the brimstone was smelled. And these were the 
first impressions made upon the minds of terror- 
stricken and superstitious savages, that the fire and 
smoke, and orims-tone or sulphurous smell, issued 
out of the mouths of the cavalry; and this fact is 
fully sustained by history. 

[V. 18. By these three was the third part of men 
killed by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the 
brimstone which issued out of their mouths] — This 
passage is evidently to be understood as a general 
declaration, in regard to the results of the introduc- 
tion and use of firearms, that at least one third of 
the whole number of men engaged in warfare should 
be killed by these means. 

[V. 19. For their power is in their mouths, and 
in their tails; for their tails were like unto serpents, 
and had heads, and with them they do hurt] — Here 
is a complete description of the capacity and action 



282 PEEDMSTTOHS 

rms. From their nkraths. baHfl and other 

destructive pr< ales o -•;- issue 1 : and in their tails, 
the opposite end: hegunpc nder is placed^ and when 
asea the ball to issue out of the mouth 
: fch gnu with i most d nietive srei 

7 : ■". . . were like unto serpents] in Wo 
: stained an unseen and deadly 
\ " rn^ht be used : atny moment, for the 
: .0:0:1 of their enemies. And secondly, the 
:i .".: 3 -oo f the gun, musket : : :i_-r firearm, 
r; which the flint hed, is serpent shaped, and 

- impelled by o -ring in the gun lock. 

strikes the flint _ inst the firizzen, and makes fire, 
which ignites the powder, and causes the explosion; 
and iu bMs " : *y they lo hurt. iPhe flint is held in 
the mouth or head of the gun cock, which heal looks 
!ikf : mt's head th b uything to which it 

n '.. and its motion, when impelled for- 
ward gainst the irizzen to moo: fire, is more like 
the ;tiori . : a - ooent. when he strikes, than 
thing else: and the very shape of this part of 
the gun. from head to tail as weD as the action, re- 
minds one of o m r _- than any other creature. 
_ [ hence it is ith. the gre ttestprop] iety >f speech. 
that the Pi phetsays, " for the:: : ils were like unto 
- : :::-. and had heads (like ante ... grits . and 
« ith them they k hurt/ 3 by holding the flint and 
king fire. i; If cannons." says Dr. Adam Clarke, 
k - are in:-., led, o. i.-seription, though allegorical, is 



OF THE PROPHETS. 283 

plain enough; for brass ordinances especially are 
frequently thus ornamented, both at their muzzle and 
at their breech." But they are evidently intended, 
as well as small arms, for this is the very period in 
which they were invented, and artillery first intro- 
duced into warfare, from 1320 to 1500. 

[V. 20 and 21. And the rest of the men which 
were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not 
of the works of their hands, that they should not 
worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and 
brass, and stone, and of wood; which neither can 
see, nor hear, nor walk : Neither repented they of 
their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their 
fornications, nor of their thefts] — These verses are 
intended to convey an important moral lesson, which 
we shall state in a paraphrase, and leave the 
reader to his own reflections. This mighty angel 
of power, or agent of destruction, will produce great 
changes among the nations, in many respects ; will 
be the means of subverting kingdoms, overthrowing 
empires and desolating continents ; will introduce 
new rules in political economy, new regulations in 
warfare ; will invigorate the spirit of enterprise ; will 
urge on the power of progress ; and open up many 
new sources of business in arts, manufactures and 
commerce. Yet, in a moral sense, the condition of 
the human race will not be improved, but they will 
grow worse and more wicked, as they become more 
familiar with the agencies destructive of human life. 



284 PREDICTIONS 

And therefore we see no instance of a nation or 
country which has grown' morally better by engaging 
in warfare, except in a defensive war, for the protec- 
tion of righteous principles ; and hence the rest of 
the men, which were not killed by these plagues, yet 
repented not of the works of their hands, that they 
should not worship devils (among Pagans), and idols 
of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood 
(among self-styled Christians), which neither see, nor 
hear, nor walk. Neither repented they (in Pagan 
or Christian lands) of their murders, nor of their 
sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their 
thefts. 

We shall now proceed to introduce the testimony 
to prove that these prophecies do apply to the con- 
quests of Asia by the Ottomans and Moguls of this 
period. 

" Genghis-Khan was born in 1163 and died 1227. 
In twenty-eight years he subdued the greater part 
of Asia, and rendered himself as famous for his 
skill in government as for the valor of his arms. 
He left Ids immense dominions, properly divided, be- 
kveen his four sons. The extent and rapidity of the 
Mogul conquests have rarely been equaled in history. 
In the beginning of the thirteenth century, Genghis- 
Khan overran India, China, Persia and Asiatic 
Russia. His four sons took possession of these 
countries according to their allotments, and main- 
tained and extended their conquests. The termina- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 285 

tion of the Saracen empire, which had existed more 
than six hundred years, is dated from the taking of 
Bagdat, by these Tartars, A. D., 1258. The Tartars 
were led by Halaku, their general ; and, after the 
capture of the city, which contained immense treas- 
ures, he gave it up to his troops, to be pillaged seven 
days. Mostasem, the last of the caliphs, was put to 
death ; and with him ended the power and the glory 
of the Saracen empire. 

" While three of these sons of Genghis-Khan were 
carrying on their conquests and maintaining their 
dominions over India, Persia, and Asiatic Russia, the 
conquest of China under the Mogul Tartars, a con- 
siderable portion of which had been previously 
brought into subjection by Genghis-Khan, the cele- 
brated conqueror, was completed in A. D. 1280, by 
his fourth son, Kublay, who took possession of his 
conquests in that country and became the first em- 
peror of a new dynasty. 

" Kublay had the wisdom and prudence to govern 
the Chinese according to their ancient laws and cus- 
toms; and, by his equity and justice, by his love and 
regard for learned men, and by his fatherly tender- 
ness to all his subjects, he found a most effectual way 
of reconciling them to his government." 

We shall now inquire what these Tartars did, 
in this period, to fulfill this prophecy in western 
Asia, from A. D. 1250 to 1641, as their conduct oc- 
cupies an important place in history. 
25 



286 PKEDICTIONS 

/,• The Huns and Turks, who were the descendants 
of the Scythians or Tartars, had established them- 
selves, some centuries before, in a tract of Asia, 
called Georgia, or Turcomania. They became Mo- 
hammedans, and, in 1037 seized Persia and ravaged 
the neighboring countries, making themselves mas- 
ters of Palestine. The insults which Christian pil- 
grims received from them led to the Crusades, in 
1095, which we have already mentioned. 

" Ottoman, to whom the Ottoman empire owes its 
name and establishment, was a caliph or prince of 
the Turks. Seizing on Bithynia, he fixed the seat 
of his government at Byrsa, and assumed the title of 
Sultan; and from this time they were known as the 
Ottoman race or sovereignty. By degrees they en- 
croached on the borders of the Greek empire, and 
were prevented from subverting it at an earlier pe- 
riod (and this was done to fulfill this prophecy), only 
by the necessity of defending themselves against the 
victorious Tamerlane. And thus the founding of 
the Turkish empire was connected with very impor- 
tant consequences in the history of the world, but- 
more particularly in regard to the Greek empire, 
which it at length superseded. This event is dated 
A. D. 1299, and took place, as above stated, under 
Ottoman or Othman, the first sultan." 

Tamerlane, or Timer-Bek, was a prince of the Us- 
bek Tartars, and a descendant from Genghis-Khan. 
Having conquered Persia, and most of the east of 



OF THE PROPHETS. 287 

Asia, lie was invited by the enemies of Bajazet to 
protect them against the Ottoman power. 

Tamerlane gladly accepted the invitation, and 
having met the Turk, he totally defeated him and 
made him a prisoner. The battle of Angoria was a 
famous one in the annals of war. The battle of An- 
goria, in Phrygia, in Lesser Asia, in which Bajazet 
was defeated and taken prisoner, and shut up in an 
iron cage by Tamerlane, occurred A. D. 1402. — 
Nearly a million of men fought in this battle, and 
300,000 were slain. The victorious career of the 
Turks was, for a time, suspended by this event. 

" Mohammed II, after some delay, commenced the 
project of taking Constantinople, in A. D. 1453, 
which had long engaged the attention of the Turks. 
The indolent inhabitants of Constantinople made 
but a feeble preparation for defence, and all Europe 
was supine and indifferent. The city was assailed 
both by sea and land, the Avails were battered down 
by cannon, and all who opposed were massacred by 
small arms." This is the first time mention is made 
of firearms in the records of history. Here again 
our interpretation is sustained. 

" The emperor was slain, and the city soon sur- 
rendered. Constantine was the name of the last em- 
peror of the east, as it was also the name of the 
first. His dominions had become exceedingly cir- 
cumscribed. The Turks had gradually encroached 
upon its borders, and Constantinople would have 



288 PREDICTIONS 

sooner become the seat of the Ottoman empire, had 
they not been compelled to defend themselves against 
the Tartars of eastern Asia. 

The Chinese had quietly submitted to the Tartar 
descendants of Genghis-Khan, during eight succes- 
sive monarchs ; but the character of the ninth was 
so odious, that a rebellion was excited, which ended 
in the expulsion of the Tartars, and the re-establish- 
ment of their own princes. This revolution in 
China by the Tartars occurred A. D., 1841. During 
a war with the eastern Tartars and the Mogul Tar- 
tars, descendants of Genghis-Khan, a rebel dethroned 
the emperor, upon which the Chinese general made 
peace with Tson-gate, the eastern Tartar prince, and 
invited him to assist in punishing the rebel. Tson- 
gate, however, seized on the Chinese throne for him- 
self ; and it has ever since remained in his family. 
Here, then, from 1250 to 1641, is 391 years, the 
exact period of the Mogul dynasty, as foretold by 
St. John. 

We have followed the four sons of Genghis-Khan, 
the four angels loosed from the great river Euphrates, 
through successive monarchies, and have learned 
that the last of the race was overthrown in 1641, 
just precisely 391 years from 1250, the very year 
in which the Asiatics began their conquests and vic- 
tories. Here, then, is another perfect coincidence 
between history and prophecy, and therefore another 
fulfillment which no finite being could have foreseen 



OF THE PROPHETS. 289 

or foretold ; evincing with all the force of demonstra- 
tion, the divine authenticity of this Book of Reve- 
lation? 

We shall notice a little more particularly the re- 
sults following in the period of the sixth trumpet. 
The sixth angel is commissioned to sound his trum- 
pet to call the horsemen or conquerors of Asia to 
destroy idolaters among the Pagans and Eastern 
Christians, to prepare the way for the kings of the 
east, used metaphorically for the true disciples of 
Christ, to spread abroad through that part of the 
world, a knowledge of the living God, through the 
medium of his glorious Gospel. Now the idea is 
conve}^ed to us by the Prophet, that many such idol- 
aters were destroyed ; and that those which were not 
killed by these plagues, often although they had 
witnessed the just displeasure of God revealed from 
heaven against all such, yet repented not of the works 
of their hands in manufacturing and selling such 
senseless, useless and ruinous things; for idolatry 
begets superstition, and superstition brings, forth 
present and eternal misery. 

" These things," says Dr. Adam Clarke, " are sup- 
posed to refer to the desolation brought upon the 
Greek Church by the Ottomans, who entirely ruined 
that church, and the Greek Empire. The Church 
which was then remaining was the Latin or Western 
Church, which was not at all corrected by these 
judgments which fell upon the Eastern Church ; but 



290 PREDICTIONS 

continued its senseless adoration of angels, saints, 
relics, etc., and does so to the present day." 

Therefore, then, this Church of Rome, must have 
much to fear: for such practices are emphatically 
holding the truth in unrighteousness; God is truth, 
and he will by no means acquit the incorrigibly 
guilty. 

[Neither repented they of their murders] — By the 
persecution of the genuine followers of Christ, against 
whom they declared and urged Crusades. Let us 
see what the Roman Catholic Church was doing, 
during this sixth trumpet period, from 1250 to 1641, 
while the Ottomans and Moguls were overrunning 
and ravaging all Asia ; and then we shall see whether 
the coincidence between her conduct, and that do- 
scribed by the prophet, are so much alike as to pro- 
duce the full conviction that the one is the duplicate 
of the other ; and that the prophetic description, is 
but the history of this notable lady arrayed in scar- 
let, who is painted upon the canvas of the historian. 
in a full length and life-like portrait. 

" During the whole course of this century (Cent. 
XIII), the Roman pontiffs carried on a most violent 
persecution against those whom they branded with 
the denomination of heretics. The sects of the 
Catharists, Waldenses and Petrobrusians or Albi- 
genses, however, daily increased, spread impercep- 
tibly through all Europe ; assembled numerous con- 
gregations in Italy, France, Spain and Germany, and 



OF THE PROPHETS. 291 

formed by degrees so powerful a party, as rendered 
them formidable to the Roman pontiffs, and menaced 
the papal jurisdiction with a fatal revolution. Writ- 
ers are not all equally accurate, nor perfectly agreed 
about the number of doctrines which entered into 
the system of these sects; yet they are all almost 
unanimous in acknowledging the sincere piety and 
exemplary conduct of the Waldenses, and show 
plainly enough, that their intention was not to op- 
pose the doctrines universally received among Chris- 
tians, but only to revive the piety and manners of 
the primitive times. And whoever candidly exam- 
ines the subject, will perceive that when the Romish 
Church departed from the faith, " giving heed to se- 
ducing spirits and doctrines of devils," the true 
Church of Christ was preserved among these harm- 
less and pious people. Though they were under 
great disadvantages, their errors, if they had any, 
must have been inconsiderable; and it is manifest, 
that the genuine doctrines of the Gospel, and the 
true spirit of Christian piety were maintained by 
them through all their sufferings, until the days of 
Luther, when they readily, united with him and 
others in promoting the Reformation. 

" Such were- the notions propagated by the secta- 
ries, who refuted the idolatries, superstitions, and 
impostures of the times by arguments deduced from 
Scripture, and whose declamations against the power, 
the opulence, and the vices of the Popes and clergy, 



292 PREDICTIONS 

were extremely agreeable to many princes and civil 
magistrates, who felt uneasy under the assumptions 
of the Roman hierarchy. 

" The council held at Toulouse, A. D. 1229, by 
Romanus, cardinal St. Angelo, and legate of the 
pope, went still further, and erected in every city a 
council of inquisitors, consisting of one priest and 
three laymen, 

" This institution, however, was superseded, A. D. 
1233, by Gregory IX, who intrusted the Dominicans, 
or preaching friars, with the important commission 
of discovering, and bringing to judgment, the heretics 
who were lurking in France, and in a formal epistle 
discharged the bishops from the burden of that pain- 
ful office. From this period, so disastrous and so 
disgraceful to human nature, is dated the establish- 
ment of that most odious of tyrannies, the Roman 
Catholic Inquisition, an institution having hell for 
its author, sin for its builder, and the destruction of 
man for its object ; whose foundations were laid in 
human blood; whose walls were cemented by the 
burnt bones of the holy martyrs ; and whose detested 
towers overlooked and overawed the whole Christian 
world. 'Neither repented they of their murders.'" 

[Nor of their sorceries] — By this we are to un- 
derstand that the wars, which were prosecuted among 
the Pagans of Asia, had no moral effect upon the 
people, but that they were as much addicted to their 
tricks of deception, slight of hand, or legerdemain, as 



OF THE PROPHETS. 293 

before; one-third of their vast population was cut 
off by war, famine, and pestilence. And so of the 
Romish Church, after her bloody, murderous inqui- 
sition was exposed and shown to be cold-blooded 
murder, she abated it yet did not repent of it, but 
shows by her sorceries the baseness of her heart. 
See how her hierarchy impose on the common peo- 
ple, in pretending to cause the images of Christ to 
bleed, the pictures of the Virgin Mary to wink and 
to weep : and the great number and variety of pre- 
tended miracles wrought in the discovering of holy 
relics, and healing the sick, etc., and the many " ly- 
ing wonders " performed at the tombs of pretended 
saints, and at the holy wells and fountains." 

[Nor of their fornication] — Forbidding to marry, 
and themselves abstaining from marriage, they dis- 
card the divine and holy institution of matrimony, 
which God has declared to be honorable in all. But, 
on the other hand, this doctrine of the devil tends 
to destroy the peace of society, subvert the estab- 
lished and natural order of the divine government, 
and overthrow the pure social character of Chris- 
tianity. If the reader wishes any further and in- 
controvertible evidence of the corrupt practices and 
teachings of this mother of harlots (for harlots are 
the natural offspring of such instruction and prac- 
tice), see " The Voice of the Prophets." 

[Nor their thefts] — Stealing the livery of heaven 
to serve the devil in, is not the least theft, by anv 



294 PREDICTIONS 

means, of which some of the Romish hierarchy are 
guilty. 

"What are the moneys obtained for their pretended 
pardons, plenary indulgences, reposing of souls, but 
most glaring thefts or swindles? And in all such as 
this, there is blasphemy and sorcery, as well as 
theft. 

Prophecy accuses a certain party, or corporation, 
or empire, with idolatry, murder, sorcery, fornication 
and robbery ; and that these things were to be com- 
mitted during the sixth trumpet period, from A., D. 
1320 to 1500; and the place where, as well as the 
time when, indicates the party implicated. If these 
things were done, as specified, history, the true in- 
terpreter and witness of prophecy, will establish the 
charge. But we have seen that these things were 
done by some of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, pre- 
cisely at the time and in the manner specified. 



OP THE PROPHETS. 295 

CHAPTER X. 

REVELATIONS CHAP. X. 
PART THIRD, PERIOD THIRD— FROM 620 TO 1680. 

The great events described in this chapter may be 
considered as being fulfilled during: the Sixth Trum- 
pet Period, from 1320 to 1500; and the Angel 
therein described, is the power of Steam, or the 
Steam Engine. Printing is also foretold, and the 
discovery of means thereby to apply the power of 
Steam to the various purposes of life and business ; 
and what is very remarkable, the art of Printing was 
discovered near the close of this Period — in 1440 ; 
and about the same time, attention was called to the 
wonderful power of Steam; and inquiries soon be- 
gan to be made by the philosophers of that age to 
devise means by which this power might be fully 
developed, and safely used, for the service of man. 

CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL ANNOTATIONS. 

[V. 1. And I saw another mighty angel come down 
from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow 
way upon his head, and his face was as it were the 
sun, and his feet as pillars of fire] — We have already 
intimated that this book is ^yvritten in parables, meta- 
phors, metonymies, allegories and similitudes; and, 
therefore, we must continually look for the true 
sense under mystical emblems. This is the style of 



296 PREDICTIONS 

the author: and this is the thing which we must 
faithfully endeavor to understand if we would inter- 
pret his meaning. 

[And I saw another mighty angel] — Or agent of 
power, which made its appearance in the sixth trum- 
pet period. The first angel, or agent of power 
which the Prophet saw come into action under this 
period, was gunpowder and firearms, which were em- 
blematically represented in the ninth chapter ; and 
as this mighty angel or agent of power is represented 
in the same manner, we hope to interpret its mean- 
ing to the entire satisfaction of ourselves, and to all 
our readers who admit our premises, that these 
things are represented in an allegory. 

We hold that this mighty angel is steam power. 
He was a mighty angel, which came down from 
heaven ; and so is steam a mighty agent. He came 
doivn from heaven, and so does water, out of which 
steam is generated. Or, if taken in the sense of 
being put to service, this was done by Christians, 
who are emblematically called heaven, as they com- 
pose a part of the heavenly family. He was clothed 
with a cloud ; so is steam invested, or the water out 
of which it is generated, is thus visibly invested and 
carried over sea and land. 

[And a rainbow upon his head] — The rainbow was 
a divine pledge of peace, safety, rest and happiness 
to mankind; a pledge of universal favor. So of 
steam ; the rainbow of promise, of peace, rest, hap- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 297 

piness and universal favor was upon its head, front 
and foremost of all its promises. 

The other angel or agent of power which the 
Prophet saw come into action in this trumpet period, 
was a destructive power, introduced and universally 
designed to destroy the peace, safety and happiness 
of mankind ; and if otherwise used, it would be the 
exception and not the end contemplated; but steam 
was for the temporal salvation of man ! 

[And his face was as it were the sun] — The face 
in Scripture signifies displeasure or favor, when used 
emblematically, which must be determined by the 
context. Then, judging by what is said, we are to 
understand that this angel or agent was a universal 
favor, or will be to mankind, just as the sun is 
hailed with gladness ; and as the sun is the source 
of light, comfort and prosperity, so is steam to be 
the agent in diffusing gladness, moral light and social 
comfort, agricultural, mechanical, manufacturing and 
commercial prosperity all over the world, among all 
the families of the earth, free as the sunshine, to all 
who labor for its blessings, whether in the palace of 
the prince or the cottage of the poor. 

[And his feet as pillars of fire] — The feet of this 
angel, the foundation or support, the means of mo- 
tion, action, were pillars of fire. So of steam; its 
means of motion is fire ; and its boilers are like hori- 
zontal pillars, and these are the feet or foundation of 
all its motion, or more especially is this true of tho 



298 PREDICTIONS 

chimneys, which are like standing pillars, from which 
issue smoke and fire. 

[V. 2. And he had in his hand a little book open]— 
A book is the emblem of wisdom and order ; and an 
open book is a symbol of the wisest and nicest 
order, indicating that whatever was done by this 
agent or angel, would be done in the most orderly 
manner. The book was a little one, indicating that 
the rules of action for this agent were but few, and 
would be well understood. So all this is evidently 
true of steam. 

[And he set his right foot upon the sea] — The first 
effort of action on the part of this angel was upon 
the sea. So of steam, its first successful step, the 
right foot of its power, was first exercised on the 
sea, used by metonymy for all waters. 

[And his left foot upon the land] — And this is 
true of steam ; after it had gained complete triumph 
on the waters, it went forth like a thing of life over 
the land, showing that in power it had no equal on 
the earth ; but by the wise and orderly control of its 
power, it brought joy, peace and happiness, as cheer- 
ful as sunshine, to toiling man. 

[V. 3. And cried with a loud voice, as a lion roar- 
eth] — And this is equally true of steam. Was there 
ever any power on earth whose voice is more like 
the roaring of the lion, than the roaring of steam ? 
Does not this fully and truly complete the parallel, 
and show that this mighty angel is steam ? What 



OF THE PROPHETS. 299 

other power on earth so fully coincides with this an- 
gel as steam ? 

On the introduction and application of steam to 
the various purposes of life and business, it was as 
apparent to sensible men, that times would be no 
longer as they had been in former ages, as if an 
angel had sworn it. And further, the affirmation of 
this angel or agent goes to establish the interpreta- 
tion we have given in this passage: " That there 
should be time no longer" wasted by feeble and faint- 
ing powers as in past times. That there should be 
no more delay by calms or contrary winds on the 
seas. And that there should be no more delay on 
account of bad weather, or bad roads on land. And, 
moreover, the affirmation indicates that this mighty 
agent should have control over sea and land, that 
there should be no more delay, as in time past, when 
it required as many weeks, or even months, in some 
instances, as it now requires days to perform a 
voyage on sea, or a journey over land. 

The discovery of the power, and adaptation of 
steam to the various purposes, is the most valuable 
agent which human philosophy has ever rendered 
subservient to man. It is remarkable that nearly 
all other great discoveries have been the result of 
what we call accident — such as the mariner's com- 
pass ; gunpowder; the telescope; the microscope; 
etc. ; while steam, from the very first discovery of 
its power, has been the subject of patient experi- 



300 PREDICTIONS 

mental philosophy, to develop its adaptation to the 
wants of man. 

[V. 5. And the angel which I saw stand upon the 
sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven.] 
This angel or agent that stood upon the sea and the 
earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, as one making a 
public and solemn appeal to the Supreme Being, to 
witness the truth and certainty of what he was about 
to affirm. 

[Y. 6. And swear by him that liveth forever and 
ever] — This solemn affirmation was made by him 
that always lived, and would always live, the self- 
existent Jehovah, the Maker of all things, visible and 
invisible, throughout the boundless regions of the 
universe ; and what the angel so solemnly affirmed 
was, That there should, be time no longer. " This has 
no reference to the day of judgment, but that the 
great counsels relative to the events already pre- 
dicted, should be immediately fulfilled, and that there 
should be no longer delay." — Dr. A. Clarke. Now, 
this comment of the Doctor agrees fully with my in- 
terpretation, that this mighty angel is steam, and 
that by it delay of time would be obviated, and time 
should be no longer wasted for want of an untiring 
power. 

What is most convincing to my mind, that the 
foregoing interpretation is correct, and that steam is 
the subject of this prophecy, or revelation, as set 
forth in this chapter from verse 1 to 7, is the fact, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 301 

that steam power, or the steam engine, was the next 
great discovery of power, after that of gunpowder 
and firearms, which we hold was the subject of pro- 
phecy or revelation in chapter ix. All the stages 
of development in regard to steam, correspond with 
the description given above, even to the whistle, 
which gives steam a voice, as when a lion roareth. 

[V. 7. But in the days of the voice of the seventh 
angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of 
God should be finished, as he hath declared to his 
servants the prophets] — We are more likely to find 
the true sense of this book, in the primitive and ob- 
solete meaning of words, than in their modern ac- 
ceptation. 31ystery, has several significations, which 
the reader may examine at his leisure; but that one 
which I consider to be the definition here intended, 
is that meaning which was in good use at the time 
of the giving of this Revelation. One of its ac- 
ceptations, then, was simply this : " A dramatic 
representation." If this be correct, the mystery of 
God is the dramatic representation of God, as he hath 
declared to his servants the prophets ; and this should 
be finished. That is, the dramatic representations 
of God, in regard to his providence and grace, which 
he hath declared to his servants, the prophets of the 
Jewish and Christian dispensations, shall be finished 
in the days of the voice of the seventh angel ; even 
from the time when he shall begin to sound ; then 
the means shall be introduced and set in operation, 
26 



302 PREDICTIONS 

by which this mystery, dramatic representation, as 
he hath declared to his servants, the prophets in the 
Old and New Testaments, shall be fully developed, 
and everywhere understood. The very year we as- 
sign as the predicted year in which the seventh ano-el 
began to prepare to sound, is the year in which print- 
ing was discovered. Gunpowder was a great power ; 
steam was a greater poiver : but the art of printing 
was the greatest power of a mechanical character that 
was ever upon earth, for the purpose of completing, 
perfecting, or finishing the mystery, the orderly 
representations of God, in his providence and grace, 
as he hath declared to his servants the prophets; 
which were not represented in ordinary poems or 
compositions, representing the various pictures of 
human life, but in the inspired writings of the Jew- 
ish and Christian Scriptures. By the art and power 
of printing, this wonderful mystery, which had been 
hid for ages, was revealed and made known in the 
most orderly manner to the millions, who before had 
been sitting in darkness, and in the shadow of death. 

We hold, that the seventh angel began to prepare 
to sound his trumpet in the year a. d. 1440, the iden- 
tical year in which printing was discovered ; and 
therefore we are sustained in our interpretation, by 
the beautiful coincidence between prophecy and his- 
tory, which demonstrates the absolute fulfillment of 
the divine prediction. 

The power of printing was brought into practical 



OF THE PROPHETS. 303 

use more than two hundred years before the power 
of steam was made subservient to the interests of 
man : yet steam power had been noticed previous to 
the discovery of the art of printing ; and therefore it 
is mentioned in its chronological order, by the Pro- 
phet in his Revelations. 

I will here premise in this connection, as the mys- 
tery of the seven thunders was to be unsealed or 
finished at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, that 
they uttered or declared the very labors or works 
which this mighty steam angel was to do for man. 
But as the whole representation was designed at the 
first to be allegorical, it would have been varying 
from the divine plan to have written these things 
then, and therefore the Prophet was commanded to 
seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, 
and write them not until the mystery of God is fin- 
ished ; then it is implied that these things would be 
made known. 

1. This steam angel will impel your ships over the 
seas, for migration, commerce and warfare, without 
delay by calms or contrary ivinds. 

2. He will lift from the mines the various minerals 
for the service of man. 

3. He Avill manufacture the raw material of every 
quality, and save human labor. 

4. He will change these materials by his power 
into fabrics, utensils, and structures, with the skill 



304 PREDICTIONS 

and wisdom of the most experienced workman, with- 
out manual toil. 

5. He will impel the people and the products of 
one part of the continent to another, with incredible 
speed, and his chariots for this purpose shall jostle 
against each other, and at night he shall carry be- 
fore him a light as a naming torch, and they shall 
run like the lightnings, as God hath declared to his 
servant, the Prophet Nahum, chapter ii. And by 
means of this angel, many shall run to and fro, and 
knowledge shall be increased, for promoting the 
health, happiness and prosperity of mankind, by so 
greatly lessening their toils, and promoting their 
friendly and social intercourse, as God has declared 
by his servant, the prophet Daniel, chapter xii. 

6. He will perform the labors of the husbandman, 
and by his power the tiller in the field shall sit down 
and rest from his toil. 

7. He will, by his power and adaptation to every 
purpose, relieve the " women that grind at the mill," 
do the work of the chemist, and kindly help the 
maiden and the matron in their culinary toil. 

[Y. 8. And the voice which I heard from heaven, 
spoke unto me again, and said : Go, take the little 
book, which is open in the hand of the angel, which 
standeth upon the sea and upon the earth] — With 
this chapter the times, actions and events of 1440 
years end ; just one half of the whole period from 
the birth of Christ to the cleansing of the Sanctuary, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 305 

as spoken of by the prophet Daniel, and the time of 
the end of the woman's second egress from the wil- 
derness. 

We have now come to the middle of the book : the 
former part has given us an account of important 
prophecies, concerning peoples, and nations, and 
kingdoms, and empires, which we have b§£@. enabled 
to ascertain were fulfilled to the very letter, and in 
the most remarkable manner. 

We have already stated, that a book is the emblem 
of knowledge and wisdom, and that an open book is 
the symbol of wise order. The angel, having the 
book open in his hand, represents, that he knows and 
controls all things, according to the wisest and nicest 
order. 

[V. 9. And I went unto the angel, and said unto 
him, give me the little book] — This angel, in my 
opinion, is Jesus Christ; for he is the author of all 
these Revelations, in the former as well as the latter 
part of this book. 

[Give me the little book] — Give me the order, 
date, and characters, persons, actions and events for 
the ages to come, as thou hast done heretofore ; for 
I know not the things which are contained in the 
book of futurity. 

[And he said unto me, take and eat it up] — Pon- 
der these things in thy mind; receive instruction 
from them, and prepare to impart it to others ; for it 
is not to be sealed. 



306 PREDICTIONS 

[And it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be 
in thy mouth sweet as honey] — You will learn from 
the little book the order of events which are yet to 
transpire ; and many things will be revolting to the 
natural man ; many things will pain thy bowels of 
compassion, will grieve thee to thy heart, to know 
what shall be in the end ! 

In my opinion, the Prophet is put by persoriifica- 
tion for the whole Church. Many things and events 
were to transpire in the future which would painfully 
afflict and sorely trouble the body of Christ, the 
Church. But the spiritual, the moral, the heavenly 
consolations, should be to her mouth, her mind or 
soul, sweet as honey; and especially the promises 
of the future Revelations, in regard to the final tri- 
umph of the Church, should be sweeter than honey 
and the honey-comb. 

[V. 10-11. And I took the little book out of the 
angel's hand, and ate it up ; and it was in my mouth 
sweet as honey, and as soon as I had eaten it, my 
belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must 
prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, 
and tongues, and kings] — These verses contain 
merely the recapitulation of what has already been 
predicted, and is an affirmation and confirmation of 
what had been said and done in the previous part of 
the chapter. 

Much has been revealed in the former part 
of the book, and much remains to be revealed, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 307 

in regard to many peoples, and nations, and tongues, 
and kings and kingdoms. 

I shall lay before the reader a few of those pro- 
phecies from the Old Testament which, I conceive, 
support the interpretation I have given to the pre- 
dictions or Revelations of this chapter. And I feel 
the more inclined to do so, as I stand alone in most 
of my expositions, and have been called by would- 
be wise men fanciful in my views. It appears plain 
to me that, in the vision of Isaiah, he must have 
seen steamboats and cars — moving swiftly with un- 
tiring power — their wheels like a whirlwind — their 
voice like a lion — roaring like young lions — their 
freight trains carrying away their burdens safely, 
and no one able to take anything from them while 
under headway. Hear the words of the Prophet : 

" And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from 
far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the 
earth ; and, behold, they shall come with speed 
swiftly. None shall be weary nor stumble among 
them ; none shall slumber nor sleep ; neither shall 
the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the lachet of 
their shoes be broken. Whose arrows are sharp, 
and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be 
counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. 
Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar 
like young lions ; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold 
of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none 
shall deliver it."— Isaiah v. 26-29. 



308 PREDICTIONS 

The prophet Nahum, who was permitted to see a 
vision of distant times and nations, certainly speaks 
of steam cars, which should carry a light before 
them in the night as a flaming torch — their face as 
the sun, as seen by St. John — that they should jostle 
against one another, and that they should run like 
lightning. 

Have we not trains called, or been called, light- 
ning trains, on account of their speed? Is there 
not a very clear coincidence in these things between 
prophecy and history ? Can you find any coinci- 
dence in the annals of time, or the records of any 
age since the Christian era, that so perfectly agrees 
with the predictions of the prophets as the view we 
have taken ? 

Hear the words of the prophet Nahum : " The 
chariots shall be with flaming torches, in the day of 
his preparation, and the fir-trees shall be terribly 
shaken (for timber and fuel for these chariots), and 
the chariots shall rage in the streets ; they shall 
jostle one against another in the broad ways : they 
shall seem like torches (in the night) : they shall 
run like the lightnings." 

If what we have already said will not satisfy the 
reader as to the fulfillment of these predictions, it is 
useless to waste time in presenting arguments or ad- 
ducing evidence in support of the positions we have 
taken. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 309 



THE SEVEN THUNDERS. 

[V. 3-4. And cried with a loud voice, as when a 
lion roareth : and when he had cried, seven thunders 
uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders 
had uttered their voices, I was about to write : and I 
heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up 
those things which the seven thunders uttered, and 
write them not]. 

1. The First Yoice may represent, in a philosophic 
sense, an angel, or agent, as the medium of power ; 
and may be said to represent, emblematically, some 
great discovery or development of Nature, which 
was to bring power to the cause of Christ. 

It is here worthy of remark, that for the opening 
of the Seven Seals, chap, v, 12, hundreds of millions 
of Angels are heard with a loud voice, as the voice 
of seven thunders, to say, " Worthy is the Lamb that 
was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, 
and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." 
And all creatures, in all places of his dominions, 
praised him, and said, Amen, and fell down and wor- 
shiped him that liveth forever and ever. 

Whatever is done to Christians is the same as if 
it was done to Christ; and whatever is done by 
Christians is the same as if it was done by Christ. 
Wherefore, we justly conclude, that the Art of 
Printing was the means, agent, or angel, which ut- 
tered the first thunder tones of Truth, with untold 
27 



310 PREDICTIONS 

power, for the cause of Christ, by multiplying, in 
quick succession, the thousands on thousands of 
Bibles in the living languages of Europe ; and these 
thunder tones of truth, sounding from the Bible in 
the ears, and minds, and hearts of men, silenced the 
mock thunders of the Popes of Borne, and made way 
for the glorious Reformation under Luther and his 
successors, down to our own times; and these thun- 
ders shall reverberate around the world, bringing 
peace on earth and good-will to men. 

2. The Second Voice, we presume, may signify 
the making known Something which was sealed or 
hidden ; and the discovery of the Mariner's Compass 
and quadrant, which led to the discovery of America, 
with all its riches, which was to become the abode of 
the Woman during her second sojourn in the wilder- 
ness of the New World. How wonderful the adapta- 
tion of this discovery to the protection and nourish- 
ment of the Church, which is represented under the 
symbol of the Woman, to whom was given wings as 
of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilder- 
ness of America at the beginning of this period, and 
just at this crisis of the Reformation ! 

3. The Third Voice is -the emblem of something 
sealed or unknown, which we humbly conceive to be 
the discovery of the Telescope and Microscope, which 
have led to an investigation and knowledge of the 
works of God, which have given to mankind a wis- 
dom which had never before entered into the hearts 



OF THE PROPHETS. 311 

of men to conceive. Instead of a few thousand 
stars, as seen by the unaided eye, the Telescope re- 
veals more than a hundred millions of suns, with all 
their attendant satellites and revolving systems. 

With the Microscope man looks into the minute- 
ness of things; and a little world is seen in a single 
drop of water. Millions of perfectly organized 
beings are seen to exist in an incredibly small space, 
where such things were not suspected. But the 
greatest benefit of the Microscope, however, is in its 
application to the evevy-day purposes of life. By it 
we detect the adulterations of the necessaries and 
luxuries of life, which are done by mixing a good 
and bad article of the same kind ; or some foreign, 
unsuspected and worthless article with one that is 
valuable. The same trickery is carried on in drugs, 
medicines, etc. Nothing but the godlike eye of the 
Microscope can detect these hurtful and ruinous 
things. "How wonderful are thy works, Lord; 
in wisdom hast thou made them all. 0, that men 
would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his 
wonderful works to the children of men ! 0, the 
depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and the 
knowledge of God ! " 

4. The Fourth Voice makes known the strength of 
steam, and coal, the fuel to produce it, for stationary 
engines, marine vessels, locomotives, etc. These 
have given a vigor, activity and strength to every 
department of agricultural, manufacturing and com- 



312 PREDICTIONS 

mercial business. And therefore, " many run to 
and fro, and knowledge is increased," as it is written 
that it should come to pass in the last days, accord- 
ing to the word of the Lord by Daniel. It would 
require volumes to describe the indomitable, perse- 
vering and triumphant achievements of Steam. 

The mighty angel which came down from heaven, 
clothed with a cloud, a rainbow upon his head, his 
face as it were the sun, his feet as pillars of fire, and 
he walked over sea and land, and had a loud voice as 
when a lion roareth ; may he not beautifully personify 
Steam ? The labors of toiling millions are daily 
performed by his great strength, while it is only ne- 
cessary for man to feed, water, and direct him ; 
while he moves on, like a thing of life, in faithful 
obedience to the bidding of his master. 

5. The Fifth Voice, we may presume, makes 
known the appliances and. machinery for carding, 
weaving, knitting, spinning, sewing, etc. By the 
strength of steam it is estimated, that in these de- 
partments of business, from 10 to 100 persons can 
perform the work of 10,000, if unaided by machin- 
ery propelled by steam. 

These improvements have conferred honor on all 
Christian nations, insomuch that the humblest citizen 
may dress more honorably and live more sumptuously 
than kings did in ancient times. 

" Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion ; put 
on thy beautiful garments, O, Jerusalem, the Holy 



OF THE PROPHETS. 813 

City ; for henceforth there shall no more come into 
thee, the uncircumcised and the unclean/' 

Mr. Livingstone, in his great work of Travels and 
Research in Africa, remarks, that no one can form 
a just estimate of the uncouth and disgusting appear- 
ance that the naked savages present to the traveler ; 
and without such a sight, could not fully appreciate 
the beautiful garments of Christian nations. 

6. The Sixth Voice, we may presume, declares the 
discovery and application of Electricity to the various 
purposes of philosophic investigation ; and especially 
for the transmission of knowledge from place to 
place, with the quickness of thought ; so that, in the 
truthful language of inspiration, " there should be 
time no longer," as necessary to communicate in- 
formation from one place to another. This discov- 
ery brings glory to all Christians, as it was made by 
a Christian, in this land of Liberty. These godlike 
discoveries, made known by Nature's voice speaking 
to men as audibly as the voice of thunder, have 
gladdened the hearts of untold millions, and are des- 
tined to prove an invaluable blessing to the whole 
human race. " The wilderness and the solitary place 
shall be made glad for them; and the desert shall 
rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom 
abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. 
The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto them — 
the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see 
the glory of the Lord, even the excellency of our God." 



314 PREDICTIONS 

7. The Seventh Voice, we may presume, declares 
the improvement in all Mechanic Arts, agricultural 
implements and philosophical apparatus ; by which 
the labors and toils of mankind are so greatly dimin- 
ished, that there is not a tithe of the toil, sorrow, 
and suffering, at the present time, as in former 
ages. Therefore, these things are a blessing; mak- 
ing the homes of the humble happy; bringing 
pleasure to the nations, and joyful prosperity to 
the world ! 

And it is worthy of our highest admiration, that 
all these great achievements, with all their concomi- 
tant blessings to the whole human race, have all had 
their origin among Christians ; evincing the power 
and superiority of the Gospel over every other sys- 
tem which has ever existed on Earth, to civilize, en- 
lighten and happify the human family. All these 
things have been produced by Christians ; therefore 
they are said to be done by Christ ; " for without 
Me ye can do nothing ;" but, through Christ strength- 
ening us, we can do all he has required of us, or all 
he has promised to accomplish by his people in the 
world. 

It is stated as an historical fact, that Sir Isaac 
Newton, the accomplished scholar und humble Chris- 
tian, remarked, after critically investigating the 
Prophecies, that many of them would not be fulfilled 
until mankind could travel at the rate of fifty miles 
per hour. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 315 

'Voltaire, a co temporary infidel, having heard of 
the observation of Newton, replied, " The old fool 
knows that mankind can never travel at that rate ; 
.therefore the Prophecies will never be fulfilled.' 5 
It is easy for the children of this age of the world 
to determine whether Sir Isaac Newton or Voltaire 
was the fool. 



316 PREDICTIONS 

CHAPTER XI. 

REVELATION, CHAP. XI. 
PART THIRD, PERIOD THIRD— Continued. 

This Chapter, to the 15th verse, may be consid- 
ered as a recapitulation of the great characters, ac- 
tions, and events of the first part of this Revelation. 
And this may be considered the middle of the Book, 
and the middle of the Christian Dispensation. 

We shall now notice, that there are three remark- 
able characters, which have been the actors in this 
Period : from A. D. 420 to 1680, the Period when 
the Seventh Trumpet ceases to sound, and gives 
place to the Vial Periods. 

During this Period, the Holy City, True Religion, 
was trodden down by the Gentiles ; the two wit- 
nesses, the Jew, with the Old Testament ; and Chris- 
tian, with the New Testament, were overcome, clothed 
in sackcloth, and killed. This was done by the Great 
City, False Religion, at the instigation of the Beast, 
or dragon from the Bottomless Pit, under the Popes 
at Rome and Avignon. 

However, these Witnesses being dead, yet spake 
to mankind ; so that the voices of the Prophets were 
heard. And they prophesied to the end of this Pe- 
riod, or 1260 years, to the time of the Lutheran Re- 
formation, clothed in sackcloth ; signifying the op- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 317 

pressed and down-trodden condition of th^ people of 
God, and the corrupt state of the world, in neglect- 
ing and rejecting the Inspired Writings of the Jew- 
ish and Christian Churches ; and the constancy of 
some faithful witnesses to the Truth, under severe 
persecutions, during the whole of this Period of the 
Woman's first sojourn in the Wilderness of Europe 
from 360 to 1620. 

This period closes with an earthquake ; signifying 
a great political change, or revolution, and a tenth 
of the Great City fell ; signifying, that a tenth, or 
one of the horns, or wards of the Great City, would 
fall away from, or declare itself independent, at the 
close of this Sixth Trumpet Period ; which actually 
occurred, by England, under Henry the VIII, de- 
claring his kingdom independent of the Pope of 
Rome. 

SEVENTH TRUMPET— FROM A. D. 1500 TO 1680. 

With the 15th verse of this Chapter, and at this 
Trumpet Period, events occur which cause hymns of 
thanksgiving, and songs of triumph to go up to God, 
for raising the two Witnesses, and bringing the Wo- 
man, the True Church, out of the Wilderness of Eu- 
rope, and preparing for her a new home in America. 

The evidence, both from ecclesiastical and political 
history, is most abundant in this Period, to fully sus- 
tain the positions I have endeavored to maintain in 
this Chapter ; but the limits of the present volume 



318 PREDICTIONS 

will admit only very brief quotations ; and, there- 
fore, we must again refer the reader to the large 
work entitled " The Voice of the Prophets." 

CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL ANNOTATIONS. 

[ Y. 1. And there was given unto me a reed like 
unto a rod] — In a Book so allegorical as this Reve- 
lation, where almost everything is represented by al- 
legories, emblems, similitudes, or metonymy, may 
there not be a reference to the paper reed used by 
the ancients in the place of Parchment ? If so it was 
equivalent to a roll of paper reed being given by the 
Angel to the prophet, rolled tightly together, giving 
it the appearance of a measuring rod or staff, to 
measure the Temple, and all pertaining to it. 

[And the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure 
the temple of God, and the altar, and them that wor- 
ship therein] — This measuring rod is to be under- 
stood in a moral sense — rod being put for the word 
of God ; for the Psalmist expresses such an idea as 
this, when he says, "Thy rod and thy staff, they 
shall comfort me." The law is the rule of action, 
and is used to direct and correct, and lead us as a 
competent teacher in the way to Christ; and the 
promises and hopes of the Gospel comfort us along 
the journey of life, and through the dark valley and 
shadow of death. 

The Old and New Testaments, are the rod or rule 
by which Christians are to be measured, to know if 



0E THE PROPHETS. 819 

they fill the measure of men in Christ. Christians 
are called the temple of God — temple of the Holy 
Ghost. The word of God, then, is the standard by 
which they are to be measured, to know if they are 
of the proper stature of the heavenly army. God's 
word is the rule to measure the altar to ascertain its 
dimensions, to know if anything is placed thereon, 
except the pleasing sacrifice of prayer from a con- 
trite heart ; and the incense of praise and thanksgiv- 
ing to God for salvation here, and the hope of eter- 
nal salvation hereafter. All that worship in this 
temple, and at this altar, must worship God only, 
according to his word. Any other sacrifice on the 
altar, and any other kind of worship, is an abomina- 
tion unto the Most High. This is to be understood 
as applying to the Christian Church, in its doctrines 
and practice. Men should discern by this measur- 
ing rod, who served God aright, and who did not 
serve him acceptably ; so by their fruit shall men be 
known. 

[V. 2. But the court which is without the temple, 
leave out, and measure it not ; for it is given unto 
the Gentiles] — That is, the Jewish temple is now de- 
stroyed ; they have no more an altar for oblations 
and sacrifices ; they are no more permitted to wor- 
ship in the temple of their fathers, the place where 
Jehovah chose to register his name : for they are 
now dispersed abroad among the Gentiles. 

[And the holy city shall they tread under foot 



320 PREDICTIONS 

forty- two months] — The term city was applied to 
the Jewish Church before the advent of Christ. But 
as they are rejected under the present dispensation, 
because of unbelief, we are to understand the term 
holy city as applying to the Church of Christ, wher- 
ever found filling the measure of the rod, as above 
described, and living as above directed. By thus 
living and acting, they deserve the appellation of a 
holy city, holy nation, a peculiar people, zealous of 
good works. 

This holy city began to be trodden under foot, to 
be debased and despised about the year 303, when 
the councils of men were considered superior to the 
commandments of God, the measuring rod of the 
prophet ; for from about this time, men did not mea- 
sure the temple, the altars, and the AYorshipers by 
this Divine rule, but by rules made at general coun- 
cils, thus trampling under foot the holy city, by 
trampling on its laws, and disregarding its institu- 
tions with contempt and insult. 

And thus the holy city, the true Church, was de- 
based forty-two months, 1260 years, to A. T>. 1563. 

[V. 3. And I will give unto my two witnesses. 
And they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and 
three score days, clothed in sackcloth] — The angel 
which commanded the Prophet to measure the temple 
and all that pertained to it, was none other than 
Christ, the angel of the Covenant. And in this 
verse he speaks in his own imperial majesty, saying : 



OF THE PROPHETS. 321 

" I will give unto my two witnesses protection ; and 
though they are trampled down beneath unhallowed 
feet, they shall not be destroyed, for the eternal 
years of God belong to them and their testimony." 

The two witnesses are put by metonymy for their 
testimony; or, if we take the passage just as it 
stands, it implies the Old Testament and New Tes- 
tament, which are the two witnesses which have 
borne and still bear testimony to the dispensations 
of Providence and grace, in the Jewish and the 
Christian Churches. It does also signify that God 
will give protection and power to pious Jews and 
Christians, though debased and down-trodden, to 
bear testimony to his truth in the most degenerate 
times and nations ; for he hath not at any time left 
himself without witnesses from among these ; for 
wherever they have been scattered abroad among the 
nations, they have scrupulously preserved the in- 
spired writings ; and thereby feared God, and kept 
his commandments, and have faithfully prophesied to 
others to do the same, as this is the whole duty of 
man. 

And they continued to prophesy, that God is no 
respecter of persons ; but he that feareth God and 
worketh righteousness, is accepted with him in every 
nation. This interpretation makes the passage con- 
sistent with itself, and coincide with the whole tenor 
of Scripture. They are the measuring rod, the rule 
vrhich testifies and proves the straitness, the righte- 



322 PREDICTIONS 

ousness or unrighteousness of our moral and reli- 
gious characters. Therefore, these two testaments 
are the two witnesses by whose testimony all righte- 
ousness or unrighteousness is judged ; that of the 
Jew by the one, and that of the Gentile by the other ; 
and all by both, as the spirit and intent of their tes- 
timony is the same. And therefore, by this measur- 
ing rod, every man's works are to be measured or 
tried, and every one finally acquitted or condemned. 

[A thousand two hundred and three score days 
clothed in sackcloth] — This period is the same length 
of forty- two months. A day is put for a year ; 
Ezekiel, chap, iv, v. 6. " I have appointed thee each 
day for a year" — 1260 prophetic days, then, are 
1260 common years. And 42 months multiplied by 
the number of days in a month, reckoning the month 
as did the ancients at 30 days, we have 42 X 30 
=1260 years common time. 

In the former part of the book, the Prophet has 
been revealing much concerning the political, mechan- 
ical, and philosophical as well as ecclesiastical char- 
acters, actions, agents- and events. But now he re- 
veals the special condition of the true Church, from 
the time it began to be trampled down, for a period 
of 1260 years. 

The holy city which was founded by Christ, peo- 
pled by his true disciples, and governed by his law 
and Gospel, as being the only sufficient rule for their 
faith and practice, was to be trodden down forty-two 



OF THE PROPHETS. 323 

months by the Gentiles ; its holy laws and pure Gos« 
pel to be trampled under their feet ; and its virtuous 
and loyal citizens were to be despised, debased, and 
clothed in sackcloth. This state of things began to 
occur about A. D. 303, in the days of Constantine, 
and was fully consummated by A. D. 420. The rea- 
son why I date the event of Church and State union 
under Constantine, at 303, instead of some years 
later is, that Church historians are not agreed among 
themselves about the date : some say 303, some 306, 
others 311 ; but by setting it at the former period, 
prophecy and history precisely coincide, showing the 
absolute fulfillment; for just 1260 years from this 
date, the Council of Trent announced its decrees, in 
the year 1563. This is the year in which the Gen- 
tiles began to withdraw their brutish feet from the 
holy city, when her long oppressed, debased, and 
mournful citizens cast off their long-worn sackcloth, 
and began to shake themselves from the dust of ages, 
and put on their beautiful garments of truth, righte- 
ousness and salvation. But as every action requires 
time, these are the incipient dates of these events. 

It was about fifty-seven years later, or in the year 
A. D. 360, before this state of things in regard to the 
humility, oppression, and sorrow of the holy city was 
fully consummated. And so it was precisely fifty- 
seven years from the time the holy city began to 
arise from the dust, and put on her beautiful gar- 
ments, that she was clothed in her beauty and her 



824 PREDICTIONS- 

strength, and was able to defend herself against her 
foes, which happened, when, like an eagle, she sailed 
over the sea, A. d. 1620, and rebuilt her city in the 
wilderness of America. 

Here is another beautiful coincidence between pro- 
phecy and history, demonstrating the absolute fulfill- 
ment of the divine prediction. Here is a wisdom to 
foretell these things, which is higher than heaven ; 
who can reach it? deeper than hell; who can fathom 
it ? wider than the world ; who may measure it ? We 
shall now introduce a few brief quotations from his- 
tory to sustain the positions we have assumed, and 
we hope they will fully satisfy the mind of the reader. 

" One melancholy instance of clerical depravity, 
which took place in this century, may serve as a 
specimen of that departure from primitive virtue, 
which marked the conduct of considerable numbers. 
A. D. 336, a year before the death of Constantine, the 
vacant see of Rome was, by a greater part of the 
people, conferred upon Damasus, and his choice was 
confirmed by his being regularly ordained by the 
bishops. The artful Ursicinus had, however, by va- 
rious intrigues, obtained ordination to the see of 
Rome from some other bishops, and prepared to take 
possession of what he chose to consider as his right. 
This gave rise to a furious contest, and even to blood- 
shed and murder. The extensive power and revenues 
of the bishops in the principal sees afforded a temp- 
tation to ambition and avarice, too potent for clerical 



OF THE PROPHETS. 325 

integrity always to resist. Hence arose consider- 
able contests for the attainment of vacant sees, and 
every artifice of flattery and dissimulation was occa- 
sionally practiced to insure the approbation of the 
multitude, whose suffrages were taken in the election 
of their ministers." Here is evidence in regard to the 
treading down of the true Church, or holy city, for 
1260 years, from 338 to 1598. 

" In the reign of Constantine the government of 
the Church was as far as possible arranged conform- 
ably to the government of the State; the bishops 
corresponded to those magistrates, whose jurisdiction 
was confined to a single city : the metropolitans to 
proconsuls or presidents of provinces, the primates 
to the emperor's vicars, each of whom governed one 
of the imperial provinces. Canons and prebendaries 
of cathedral churches took their rise from the socie- 
ties of ecclesiastics, which Eusebius, bishop of Ver- 
ceil, and after him Augustine, formed in their houses, 
and in which these prelates were styled their fathers 
and masters." 

" But while the Church was thus triumphant over, 
and assimilated to, the Pagan world, it can not be 
concealed, that its spiritual prosperity was dimin- 
ished. The worldly grandeur, in which it was ar- 
rayed under Constantine, was illy calculated to pro- 
mote the religion of the meek and lowly Jesus; and 
it may well be doubted, as it often has been, whether 
the administration of this zealous emperor, with all 
28 



326 PREDICTIONS 

its commendable features, was productive of more 
good than evil. 

" That he was actuated by an earnest wish to pro- 
mote the interests of Christianity can scarcely be 
questioned. But the union of the Church with the 
State, the power conferred on the clergy, and the en- 
couragement given to monastic orders in the Church, 
were fruitful sources of many evils. It was in this 
century, and chiefly by these measures, that a founda- 
tion was laid for the great apostasy, so conspicuous 
during the dark ages, in the rise and establishment 
of the papal power, which was not abated until the 
Reformation, in the sixteenth century." 

I have already placed before the reader the facts 
which fully satisfy my mind, as to the time when the 
Sanctuary, or holy city, began to be trodden down, 
and when the two witnesses were clothed in sackcloth 
and trampled under foot by the Gentiles, or the great 
city. I now proceed to lay the facts before the 
reader, to show the time when this period of a thous- 
and two hundred and three score days, or 1260 years 
was completed. 

" We now come to an era in which the human mind 
put forth its mightiest efforts, and in which the foun- 
dation was laid for the improvements that have since 
been made in science, philosophy, literature, and the 
useful arts. The important events of this and the 
subsequent period are very numerous. They can 
only be hinted at. Voltaire remarks, that ' the long- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 327 

est life could not suffice for a person only to read the 
historical works composed in Europe, relating to the 
events of the seventeenth century.' 

1. "It has been wisely remarked, that during this 
period, the face of the Christian world was changed. 
The thick darkness and sackcloth which overspread 
it, had begun to be dispelled and removed, by the 
revival of literature and philosophy; but at the glo- 
rious era of the Reformation, the light of moral and 
religious truth shone forth with renewed lustre, and 
produced the most important results. 

" The reformation of religion in Germany, by Mar- 
tin Luther, may be dated A. D. 1517. It was con 
nected with a new era in the religious history of the 
world. The principles of the Reformation spread 
rapidly through several countries in Europe. The 
papal system of religion received a wound, by this 
notable reformer, which will never be healed. 

" The edict of Nantz, tolerating the Protestant 
religion in France, was granted by Henry IV, A. D. 
1598. This celebrated decree was the dictate of 
wise and benevolent policy, and destroyed the germs 
of sedition in that country. It continued in force 
till the time of Lous XIV, nearly a century, when 
that prince very unwisely revoked it in 1685." 

We have seen, by the historical facts already ad- 
duced, how gradually, and step by step, the proud 
and trampling feet of oppression have been with- 
drawn from the " holy city," and how gradually the 



328 PREDICTIONS 

" two witnesses " have romoved their sackcloth, and 
shook themselves from the dust, and washed them 
from their pollutions, and put on their beautiful 
robes of righteousness. 

Y\ r e make one more quotation from the same au- 
thor, to show that this period of 1260 years of spirit- 
ual tyranny over the human mind gradually ended; 
and that their spiritual emancipation was fully con- 
summated, in precisely 1260 years from the time 
when their degradation was entirely completed. 

" The English settlements in North America be- 
came effectual and permanent, A. D., 1607. The 
settlement first formed was at Jamestown, in Vir- 
ginia. Thirteen years afterward, a colony of English 
Puritans landed at Plymouth, and began the settle- 
ment of New England, so called, from its supposed re- 
semblance of Old England. These, and other En- 
lish settlements in North America, are extremely 
important, from their connection with the political 
and religious liberty of mankind. It was nearly a 
century after the discovery of the northern portion 
of the American continent, by Cabot, before the 
English made any attempts to colonize the country" 
(that this prophecy might be fulfilled in the accom- 
plishment of the events of the one thousand, two 
hundred and threescore clays). 

" A number of Puritans having, a few years be- 
fore, left England, to free themselves from a perse- 
cuting hierarchy, and found an asylum in Holland ; 



OF THE PROPHETS. 329 

but not being satisfied with this (and that this pro- 
phecy might be fulfilled), set sail for America, which 
they reached on the 22d of December, A. D., 1620." 

Perhaps no one thing has ever occurred in the 
history of the Christian Church, which has had a 
greater tendency to trample down, degrade and deso- 
late the holy city, and fill the hearts of the true 
Christians with tribulation, and beclothe them with 
sackcloth, than the general ecclesiastical councils. 
Those councils, numbering more than eighteen in all, 
had no other influence than to set up human wisdom 
above the Divine councils ; and exalt the command- 
ments and doctrines of men above the inspired tes- 
timony of the two witnesses. 

The great apostacy which was to continue forty- 
two months, began cotemporary with the first general 
council, and the humiliating and degrading power of 
the "Man of Sin" was broken at the time of the 
last general council. 

To sustain facts so very significant, we shall at 
once introduce the testimony, and leave the reader 
to his own reflections. 

" From the powers with which the ministers of 
religion were invested, it may naturally be inferred, 
that different kinds of ecclesiastical councils must 
necessarily be established. The first species of these 
consisted in an assembly of the bishops and presby- 
ters of a particular city or district ; and the regula- 
tion of the ecclesiastical affairs within their jurisdic- 



330 PREDICTIONS 

tion, was the professed and real object of delibera- 
tion. The second kind of council was composed of 
the bishops of several provinces, whose deliberations 
were directed to the concerns of the provincial 
Churches, the forms of divine service and religious 
controversies. The ecumenical or general councils 
were convened by the emperor alone ; in which the 
rulers of the Church, in every part of the empire, 
were required to attend. 

" The first general council was convened by Con- 
stantine, A. D., 325, at Nice, in Bithynia. Three 
hundred and eighteen bishops are said to have com- 
plied with the imperial summons; and the whole 
number of attending ecclesiastics has been computed 
at 2048 persons. During the meeting of this vener- 
able synod, which lasted two months, the emperor 
frequently took a seat in the assembly, and even a 
part in the debates. So far from aiding the Church, 
however, these measures proposed, discussed and 
adopted by' general councils, were among the causes 
of that apostacy by which it was extensively and 
deeply injured for more than a thousand years.'' 

Here follows a brief statement respecting the last 
general council ever convened by the Roman Catholic 
Church ; and, in all probability, the last that will 
ever assemble at her bidding; for her days are num- 
bered, she is weighed in the balance of truth, and 
found wanting in primitive purity, piety and power. 

" The Council of Trent, in ecclesiastical history, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 331 

denotes the council assembled by Paul III, A. D., 
1545, and continued by twenty-five sessions, till the 
year 1563, under Julius III, and Pius IV, in order 
to correct, illustrate and fix with perspicuity, the 
doctrines of the Church, to restore the vigor of its 
discipline, and to reform the lives of its ministers." — 
Encycloioedia ; Trent, etc. 

Judging from the brief quotation before us, her 
case must have been excessively bilious, and chronic 
at that — so wretched, miserable and hopeless, that 
after eighteen years' patient treatment, by her most 
learned doctors, and most discerning pathologists, 
she was abandoned as corrupt in doctrine, lifeless in 
discipline and incorrigible in practice. There is no 
hope of her recovery ; there is no repentance evinced, 
though pardon is promised her ; so she is to be ut- 
terly burned with the fire of truth ; for strong is the 
Lord God who judgeth her! 

[Y. 4. These are the two olive trees, and the two 
candlesticks standing before the God of the earth] — 
The olive is the emblem of peace; so it symbolizes 
the system of the Jewish and Christian religion. 
The olive tree is extensively cultivated in Southern 
Europe and the East for its oil, which is used for 
light, fuel and medicinal purposes. The olive trees ? 
then, are put by metonymy for what they contain ; 
light, food and health; peace, joy and happiness. 
So the two Spiritual olive trees, the inspired Scrip^ 
tures of the Old and New Testaments, pour forth 



332 PREDICTIONS 

the oil of gladness to anoint the Christian a king 
and priest to Gocl; to give him spiritual light, food, 
health, peace and joy here, and the blessed hope of 
eternal happiness hereafter. 

The candlestick is the emblem of a Church; the 
two candlesticks are the symbols, then, of the two 
Churches, the Jewish and the Christian; the only 
two which have ever stood approved before Im- 
manuel, God with us; the God of the earth; for 
both of these are his ; he came unto his own, but 
his own Church received him not. It was the tame 
Olive tree ; but it was broken off because of unbe- 
lief; and the Christian Church, the wild Olive tree 
by nature, was grafted in, because they believed and 
obeyed the Gospel. However, all the true Israel of 
both these Churches shall be saved; " for I perceive 
of a truth, that Gocl is no respecter of persons ; 
but he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, 
is accepted of him in every age and nation." 

[V. 5. And if any man will hurt them, fire pro- 
ceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their ene- 
mies ; and if any man will hurt them, he must in 
this manner be killed] — If any man shall hurt the 
two witnesses, the two candlesticks, the two Olive 
trees, he must meet with retributive punishment; 
God will not hold such a one guiltless. 

" Ye are my witnesses," saith Jehovah to his peo- 
ple the Jews : " Ye are my witnesses," saith Jesus 
Christ to his disciples. The Jewish and Christian 



OF THE PROPHETS. 333 

Churches are the only two candlesticks which have 
held the pure Olive oil, and reflected the light of di- 
vine truth from the testimony of the hvo witnesses. 

Whosoever will in any way hurt these, shall offend 
against God; for they are his, and he pitieth them, 
as a father pitieth his children. The term mouth is 
also put hy metonymy for head. Christ is the head 
unto the Church in all things ; and fire proceedeth 
from him. 

1. His word is a fire; the fire of truth proceeds 
from the mouth, the testimony of the two witnesses 
condemning here in this life all their enemies^ 2. 
And will consume all their adversaries, when Christ 
their head shall be revealed from heaven in flaming 
fire, to be admired by his saints, and to execute ven- 
geance on them that know him not, and those that 
obey not his Gospel, the testimony of these wit- 
nesses. 

The " man of sin," the " Antichrist/' has much 
to dread; nothing but contention and persecution of 
these witnesses and their testimony has character- 
ized his acts, during the thousand two hundred and 
threescore days in which they prophesied, clothed in 
sackcloth ; and the forty-two months, or 1260 years 
in which the holy city was trodden down by the 
Gentiles. " But unto them that are contentious, 
and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, 
indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, 
upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew 
29 



33-4 PREDICTIONS 

first, and also of the Gentile." " But glory, honor 
and peace to every man that worketh good, to the 
Jew first, and also to the Gentile; for there is no 
respect of persons with God." 

[Y. 6. These have power to shut heaven, that it 
rain not in the days of their prophecy ; and have 
power over waters to turn them to blood, and to 
smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they 
will] — The general rendering of this passage by all 
the commentators and critics I have seen, is, that 
these witnesses have power to shut heaven that it 
rain not in the days of their prophecy, as did Elijah; 
1 Kings, 17th and 18th chapters. And to turn the 
waters to blood, as did Moses; Exodus vii; and to 
smite the earth with all the plagues which were 
brought upon the Egyptians because of their unbe- 
lief and disobedience. 

My opinion, however, is simply this. The word 
these refers to the enemies, and qualifies the enemies 
of the two witnesses. Thus these enemies of the 
two witnesses, and of the holy city, have had power 
to shut heaven, to imprison the cloud of witnesses 
whose duty it is to shower down the truths of God on 
men as freely as rain, and equally without stint or 
respect of persons. And by thus imprisoning or 
stopping these witnesses from this gracious work, 
they prevented God's word, which is as rain coming 
down from heaven upon the evil and the good, from 
being scattered as the good seed, that it might bring 



OF THE PROPHETS. 335 

forth some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred 
fold. How literally this was fulfilled by the Great 
City, in those days when these witnesses prophesied, 
clothed in sackcloth. 

And these enemies of the witnesses have power 
over waters — metaphorically, over peoples and na- 
tions, to turn them to blood — to turn them to war 
and persecution, the work that sheds blood : and to 
smite the earth with all the plagues consequent upon 
such a course of policy, as war, famine, and pesti- 
lence, as often as they will assert their rights to com- 
pel men to submit to the doctrines and commandments 
of men, rather than of God. 

How true that the enemies of pure religion, of 
true Christians, and of the two witnesses, had power 
over the nations, and set them at war, turned them 
to blood, by sword and fire, and the horrid imple- 
ments of the Inquisition. And smote the earth with 
all plagues, political and ecclesiastical, temporal and 
spiritual, present, and even pretended to consign all 
who would persist to believe the prophecy of the two 
witnesses, to the flames of purgatory, or the eternal 
fires of Hell. And these enemies of the two wit- 
nesses practiced these evil deeds at pleasure, all the 
time the holy city was trodden down, and her testi- 
mony contemptuously trampled under foot. Rome, 
had you no hand in this horrible work, from A. D. 
360 to 1620? Have you not thus often shut up 
Heaven ? Have you not turned the waters to blood ? 



336 PREDICTIONS 

Have you not in your major excommunications 
cursed men with all manner of plagues ? Have you 
not done this whenever so minded until the two- 
horned beast arose? 

[V. 7. And when they shall have finished their 
testimony, the beast, that ascendeth out of the bot- 
tomless pit, shall make war against them and shall 
overcome them, and kill them] — When the two wit- 
nesses shall have finished their testimony in their 
humble and sorrowful condition, clothed in sackcloth, 
which was completed A. D. 1563, then the beast that 
iscendeth from the bottomless pit, the great deep or 
ea, shall make war against them more fiercely than at 
■ ny former period. The term beast signifies brute 
.^rce; physical and political power shall be directed 
/ gainst the two witnesses, and those that received 
their testimony; that is, an exterminating war shall 
be waged against the two witnesses by the beast or 
power that ascends from the great deep — the powers 
of Satan, and the gates of hell — and all under Sa- 
tanic influence among men will endeavor to burn, 
destroy, or invalidate the inspired testimony of the 
Holy Bible, and condemn its use in the vulgar or 
common language of the people. We have stated 
awful facts in our interpretations of the sixth and 
seventh verses, and the reader shall have the testi- 
mony, which fully satisfies our mind that we are cor- 
rect. 

" Provincial and national councils breathed the 



OP THE PROPHETS. 337 

same spirit of persecution, as did kings and pontiffs. 
These were many ; but the most sanguinary of them 
met at Toledo, Oxford, Avignon, Tours, Laveur, 
Montpellier, Narbona, Albi and Tolosa. A. D. 630, 
the national council of Toledo, in its third canon, 
promulgated an enactment for the expulsion of all 
the Jews from Spain, and for the permission of none 
in the kingdom, but the professors of Romanism. 
This holy assembly made the king, on hisi accession 
to the throne, swear to tolerate no heretical subjects 
in the Spanish dominions." 

We have before us a picture of the character and 
practice of the hierarchy of the Church of Rome, as 
presented by her infallible general councils, which 
fully sustain our statements, in regard to her con- 
duct, and the correctness of our expositions. 

We shall now proceed to show how the two wit- 
nesses have been treated by these pretended holy 
and infallible councils. We thank God that the per- 
secuting power of Popery against the Jews, which 
began A. J). 630, will be finally broken by A. D. 
1890, throughout the whole world. 

" The Council of Tolosa, in 1229, waged war on 
this occasion against the Bible, as well as against 
heresy. The sacred synod strictly forbade the laity 
to possess the books of the Old and New Testaments 
in the vernacular idiom. A layman, in the language 
of the holy fathers, might perhaps keep a Psalm 
book, a Breviary, or the Holy Hours of Mary, but 



66$ PREDICTIONS 

no Bible. This, Velley admits, was the first prohi- 
bition of the kind. Twelve revolving ages, from the 
commencement of Christianity, had rolled their am- 
ple course over the world, and no assembly of men 
had dared to interdict the Book of God. But a synod 
in a communion, boasting infallibility amd unchange- 
ability, arrogated, at length, the authority of repeal- 
ing the enactment of heaven, and the practice of 
more than twelve hundred years. 

" But the fourth General Council of the Later an, 
in 1245, surpassed all its predecessors in severity. 
These persecuting conventions seem to have risen 
above each other by a regular gradation of inhu- 
manity. The third excelled the second on the scale 
of cruelty; and both were again excelled by the 
fourth, which, indeed, seems to have brought the sys- 
tem of persecution to perfection/' 

We rejoice to know that the Bible will have free 
access, without note or comment, to every Catholic 
family in the world, by about A. D. 2505, the period 
in which the 5th vial is to be poured upon the seat 
of the Beast. 

" The General Council of Trent was the last of 
these infallible conventions that sanctioned persecu- 
tions (and was in session from 1545 to 1563, 18 
years). This assembly, in its second session, ' en- 
joined the extermination of heretics, by the sword, 
bj fire, the rope, and all other means, when it could 
be done with safety. The sacred synod again, in 



OF THE PROPHETS. 339 

the last session, admonished all princes to exert their 
influence to prevent the abettors of heresy from mis- 
interpreting or violating the ecclesiastical decrees ; 
and to oblige those objectors, as well as other sub- 
jects, to accept and observe the synodal canons, 
with devotion and fidelity.' 

" The principles of persecution, therefore, being 
sanctioned, not only by (Romish) theologians, popes 
and provincial synods, but also by general councils, 
is a necessary and integral part of Romanism. The 
Romish communion has, by its representatives, de- 
clared its right to compel men to renounce (what it 
is pleased to call) heterodoxy, and embrace Catholic- 
ism, and to consign the obstinate to the civil power 
to be banished, tortured, and killed." 

[V. 8. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street 
of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom 
and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.] 

The dead bodies of the two witnesses are the dead 
letter of the Law and the Gospel; dead, because 
shut up in dead languages, or an unknown tongue to 
the people. Shall be in the street; which symbolizes 
the most public places ; in the churches — the courts — 
in public assemblies and palaces of the hierarchy 
and pontiffs : but even there they shall be dead bo- 
dies, of no more use than dead men. The great city, 
the Papal Corporation, having its laws, officers, and 
municipal regulations peculiar to itself. In the coun- 
try, which is called the seat of the beast, Europe, a 



840 PREDICTIONS 

city signifies a corporate town, with at least a bishop 
and a Cathedral church. The bodies of the witnesses 
were to be kept in the churches and the most public 
places ; but they were kept in a dead language. 
They were not to be in private places, houses, or 
families ; but if heard by the common people, in the 
living language, they were to be read and heard in 
the churches, as authorized by the great city, which 
is spiritually called Sodom. 

What now follows is designed to explain the prin- 
ciples, practice, and character of this great Corpora- 
tion, in language which can not be misunderstood. 

[Spiritually called Sodom] — Because the princi- 
ples, practice, and character of this great city were 
like that of her sister Sodom, which were idolatry, 
idleness, and beastly sensuality. [And Egypt] — be- 
cause of the physical, mental and moral bondage 
which the great city has imposed upon the true 
Israel of God, and the horrid torture of his people 
by the Inquisition, and her cruelty in tasking her 
own citizens with penance, labors, fastings, usury, 
and usurpation of their property and persons. 

And this great city or Corporation belonged to the 
empire where our Lord was crucified. The very place 
or country where this great city exists is thus clearly 
and unmistakably designated. This great city or 
spiritual Corporation is in the Roman empire, where 
also our Lord was crucified. It is a Roman Corpo- 
ration; Rome is the seat of its power and principal 



OF THE PROPHETS. 341 

officers, and the Roman pontiffs have been the build- 
ers of this great city or Corporation ; and this is the 
Antichrist, u the man of sin," " the men of great 

SINS." 

These are horrid accusations against the great city, 
which the interpretation of the language of our first 
witness, Prophecy, fully sustains. Now we shall hear 
what our second witness, History, will say ; so that 
by these two every accusation shall be established : 

If the quotations already made, in regard to the 
persecuting general councils, fail to satisfy the reader 
in regard to .the Egyptian character of this great 
city, volumes would be insufficient on the subject, 
though their number were equal to that of the Alex- 
andrian library. 

We shall now lay before the reader the testimony 
to show the Sodomitish character of this great city, 
which was not drawn by bungling Protestant paint- 
ers, but by her own metropolitan artists, and care- 
fully preserved as a witness against her, in her own 
infallible and unerring archives. 

" The laxity of Romanism on the one hand, and its 
privations on the other, introduced shocking impurity 
into its communion. The interdiction of marriage, 
and the connivance at concubinage, in the priesthood, 
became the polluted fountains of multiplied abomi- 
nations, which inundated the popedom and swelled 
the annals of ecclesiastical history. The clergy for- 
sook the sanctuary of wedlock for the sty of fornico,- 



342 PREDICTIONS 

tion and adultery. Gregory's enactments, according 
to Aventinus, afforded signal gratification to the wan- 
dering votary of sensuality, who, in the restlessness 
of unsettled libertinism, relinquished one woman for 
the sake of a hundred. But men who were actuated 
by conscience or a sense of propriety, regarded the 
innovation as a pestilential heresy, which arose to 
trouble Christendom. The clergy, who resisted 
Gregory's enactments against marriage, declared that 
the tendency of such interdictions was to open the 
floodgates of filthiness. and give the slackened reins 
to fornication and defilement. 

" Agrippa, in more modern days, draws a similar 
picture, and represents whoredom as the necessary 
consequence of prohibiting honorable marriage. Pol- 
ydorus, agreeing with Agrippa and Gregory's clergy, 
depicts celibacy as calculated to dishonor the priest- 
hood, injure religion, and grieve all good men. Mat- 
rimony is far more honorable and useful to society, 
and absolutely necessary to the purity, peace, and 
prosperity of the Christian commonwealth.'' 

" Mezeray's portrait of clerical profligacy, prior 
to the Reformation, is similar to those of Bernard, 
Agrippa, Henry, and Clemengis. The ecclesiastics, 
in the statement of the French historian, were nearly 
all fornicators and drunkards. The clergy held their 
offices in taverns, and they spent their money in de- 
bauchery. These general details may be corrobo- 
rated by a particular retrospect of priestly inconti- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 343 

nence, before the rise of Protestantism (the testi- 
mony of the two witnesses), in England, Spain, Ger- 
many, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Peru of South 
America. These accounts are furnished by Popish 
historians and councils." 

[V. 9. And they of the people, and kindreds, and 
tongues, and nations, shall see their dead bodies 
three days and an half, and shall not suffer their 
dead bodies to be put in graves] — In the beginning 
of this book it is written, Blessed is he that readeth, 
and they that hear the words of this prophecy. And 
what is said of this prophecy is clearly implied of 
the whole Bible, the testimony of the two witnesses, 
or two prophets, as they are designated by both 
these titles. But the people, the multitude of the 
kindreds, tongues, and nations would be prohibited 
from the privilege of reading or hearing the testi- 
mony of the two witnesses ; but should have the 
privilege of seeing them, though they were of no 
more use than dead bodies, for they would be kept 
in the most public places, as in the churches, courts, 
and councils. And this state of things was to con- 
tinue three clays and an half; or three prophetic 
years and an half; or three and a half times, equal 
to twelve hundred and sixty common years, and, in- 
terpreted thus, coincides with the periods in which 
the holy city was trodden down, and the two wit- 
nesses were to prophesy, clothed in sackcloth. This 
rendering of the passage is consistent with the use 



344 PREDICTIONS 

of the word in the original Greek, and also makes 
the prophecy perfectly consistent with itself. But 
the rulers of the great city would not have permitted 
even the privilege to see the dead bodies of the two 
witnesses, if they had not been restrained from bury- 
ing them in oblivion, from the same cause that the 
rulers of the Jews would not take Christ sooner than 
they did ; they, also, feared the people. The com- 
mon people were willing, most gladly, to hear and 
read the testimony of the two witnesses, as well as 
to see their dead bodies. These rulers of spiritual 
Sodom, however, would have consigned their dead 
bodies to the sea of forgetfulness, if they had not 
feared the clamor of the people. ' And thus the peo- 
ple, kindreds, tongues, and nations would not suffer 
their dead bodies to be put in graves, or be burned, 
though dead so long a period. 

[V. 10. And they that dwell upon the earth shall 
rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send 
gifts one to another ; because these two prophets 
tormented them that dwell on the earth] — These two 
witnesses, and those that heeded their testimony, 
were compelled to wander as wayfarers, and sorrow- 
ful pilgrims, having no certain dwelling place ; for 
they were driven out from among men, to prophecy, 
clothed in sheepskins and goatskins, and to dwell in 
dens and in caves of the earth. In the earth, while 
their enemies were permitted to dwell, to abide upon 
the earth, and without molestation, in mansions and 



OF THE PltOPHETS. 345 

palaces; being clothed in purple and fine linen, and 
faring sumptuously every day. 

These two witnesses, pious Jews and Christians, 
were continually watching the ark of the testimony, 
as did the ancient two witnesses in the temple ser- 
vice, and as they are still doing, to prevent these 
rulers of spiritual Sodom from corrupting and hand- 
ling the word of God deceitfully, and thereby turn- 
ing the Gospel into a fable, and the truth of God into 
a lie, by adding to, or taking from, the two inspired 
Testaments. 

The reason is briefly given in the latter clause of 
this verse, why these Sodomitish and Egytian rulers 
thus treated the two witnesses and their testimony; 
because these two prophets tormented them that dwell 
on the earth. The voices of the prophets, Jewish 
and Christian — for they are the two prophets ; none 
others deserve the name — are a torment to wicked 
men, and are still heard when God's word is read or 
expounded ; for, these being dead, yet speak through 
their inspired writings, to reprove for sin, and direct 
in righteousness, unto eternal life. 

We shall now bring up the testimony of history, 
to show that those men that dwelt upon the earth, 
did rejoice over the oppressed, persecuted, and de- 
stroyed people of God, both of pious Jews and Chris- 
tians. We have already shown that the principles 
of persecution are a constituent part of the Roman 
Papal Corporation ; and we shall now show that 



346 PREDICTIONS 

these principles have been fully indorsed and put 
into practice by the great city in the most cold- 
blooded and unblushing manner, and that the spirit- 
ual rulers in high places have evinced their Egyptian 
cruelty to perfection. 

" Popish Christendom, without a single murmur 
of opposition, acquiesced in these decisions, and in 
their accomplishment in the massacre of the Albi- 
genses. None, among either the clergy or laity, re- 
monstrated or reclaimed. But a papal bull, received 
by open or tacit assent, and by a majority of the 
popish clergy, forms a dogma of faith. This, at 
Maynooth, was, in the clearest language, stated by 
Crotty, Brown, and Higgins. Many pontiffs, such 
as Urban, Innocent, Clement, and Honorius, issued 
such decretals of persecution. These, without the 
objection of a solitary clergyman or layman, were 
approved and executed without justice or mercy on 
the adherents of heresy. These principles, there- 
fore, obtained the sanction of the whole Romish 
Church, and have been marked with the sign manual 
of infallibility. 

" All the Popish beneficed clergy through Chris- 
tendom profess, on oath, to receive these persecuting 
canons and councils. They swear on the holy evan- 
gelists and in the most solemn manner, ' to hold and 
teach all that the sacred canons and general councils 
have delivered, defined and declared.' 

" The legislation of kings, pontiffs and councils 



OF THE PROPHETS. 347 

was no idle speculation or untried theory. The 
regal, papal and synodal enactments were called into 
active operation ; and their practical accomplishment 
had been written in characters of blood in the annals 
of the Papacy and the Inquisition." 

" These are a few specimens of the popish divines 
who have abetted the extirpation of heresy by viol- 
ence and the Inquisition. The list might be aug- 
mented to almost any extent. Immense, indeed, is 
the number of Romish doctors who, in the advocacy 
of persecution, • have w 7 earied eloquence and ex- 
hausted learning.' " 

[V. 11. And after three days and an half the 
spirit of life from God entered into them, and they 
stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them 
which saw them] — The three days and an half are to 
be understood here, as in the ninth verse above, as 
three times and a half. Three days and an half are 
equal to three years of years and an half; or three 
times 360 years and 180 years; as 360 years is a 
prophetic time, and 180 years an half time, so by 
adding 360+360+360+180=1260 years of common 
time. 

The period when these witnesses began to be 
clothed in sackcloth, and the holy city began to be 
trodden down by the Great City, is to be dated A. D. 
303, at the time Church and State union began 
under the Roman emperor and pontiff, Constantine 
the Great; and the date at which this period ends, 



348 PREDICTIONS 

is A.D. 1563. This was the year in which the 
Council of Trent announced her decisions ; and 
Papists and Protestants were more widely separated 
than ever before : in this year Protestants stood up 
more independently than at any former period. 

It is true, the morning had been dawning for an 
hour, and the horrid deformity of pontifical Roman- 
ism had been clearly seen by good men even before 
the days of Luther ; and it would seem that, under 
Divine Providence, it was Luther's work to call and 
fix public attention upon this most ruinous system of 
Romanism, which he did with the Spirit of life from 
God, and with a wisdom and power which his ene- 
mies could not gainsay or resist. He directed the 
forces against the great city, which have sapped its 
foundations, and applied the torch of truth, the tes- 
timony of the two witnesses, to consume its labor of 
ages and leave it in everlasting ruins. 

" On the morning of the 10th day of December, 
1520, the inhabitants of Wittemberg, in Germany, 
were aroused and filled with amazement by the 
breaking out of a great conflagration at the east gate 
of the city. The intelligence of this conflagration 
at once spread as on the wings of the wind, and 
wherever it came it no less aroused and amazed the 
world. It was but the emblem of a greater confla- 
gration which had then broken out, and which has 
continued to burn to this day, and which is destined 
still to burn with fiercer flame3, until Babylon the 



OF THE PROPHETS. 349 

Great is utterly burned with fire by the avenging 
judgment of her almighty Judge. From that day 
to this, intense efforts have been made to extinguish 
the mighty conflagration. The great fire company 
of the Jesuits was formed for this especial end, and 
have labored manfully, but in vain. It still burns, 
and will burn till the avenging judgment of God is 
completed. 

" Not least of all does the conflagration rage in 
this land. The very fundamental principles of our 
civil and religious institutions are devouring fire to 
the great Babylon ; for which reason earnest efforts 
are now made to quench their fiery energy. JBut all 
shall be in vain. 

" But let us draw near and consider the burning 
in Wittemberg. Of it we find the following authen- 
tic account : ' This 10th day of December, in the 
year 1520, at the ninth hour of the day, were burned 
at Wittemberg, at the east gate, near the Holy Cross, 
all the Popes books, the Decree, the Decretals, the 
Uxtravagante of Clement VI, Leo Xth's last Bull, 
the Angelic Sum, Eck's Chrysoprasus, and some 
other works of Eck and Emser. Is not this new ? 

" What was this last bull of Leo X? It was the 
bull of excommunication of one Martin Luther. 
What had he done ? He had, in the year 1517, 
seriously interfered with the trading operations of 
the Great Corporation in the sale of indulgences for 
the professed purpose of building St. Peter's Church 
30 



350 PREDICTIONS 

at Rome. When called to account, he had refused 

to retract what he had said. When called on to dis- 
pute, he had refused to be beaten in an argument. 
When the authority of the Pope was Quoted against 
him, he had dared to call in question that authority, 
as of modern origin. When the forged decretals 
were quoted against him. though at first silenced, 
not knowing them to be forged, he at last discovered 
the imposture and dared to denounce the Pope and 
his forgeries. When pressed by the authority of 
councils, he dared to declare that councils were not 
infallible, and had erred, and that the Bible alone 
was infallible. He had dared, moreover, to appeal 
to the German princes to arouse themselves and re- 
sist the usurpations and aggressions of the Pope. 
He had dared to assail the celibacy of the clergy, 
and the Pope ; s temporal, as well as his spiritual 
monarchy, and to demand that all things should be 
reduced to order according to the word of God and 
the testimony of history. 

i; This, in brief, wai what Martin Luther had done ; 
and in truth it would seem to have been enough, if 
there were any virtue in bulls, to call for one of the 
most roaring kind and the most terrific energy. Ac- 
cordingly it came: and we have seen its reception 
by Luther, and its doom. 

" But the burning of the bull was not the most 
significant part of the proceeding. With it were 
burned the forced decretals and the canon law. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 351 

Astonishing audacity ! So, then, the very founda- 
tions of Babylon the Great are utterly burned with 
fire. 

" Who, then, had the courage, at that age and in 
these circumstances, to do that deed ? I answer, it 
was not by the courage of man that it was done, but 
by the courage of God. Nor did it express human 
passion. It was but an outward manifestation of the 
righteous judgment of the invisible ye,t present and 
avenging God." 

" Here we have beyond all doubt the judgment of 
God uttered by one of his servants whom he had 
raised up and qualified to engage in the great work, 
upon which the interests of the Church, and the 
world, and the glory of God were suspended. 

"He had prepared the way for the work, by the 
removal of the seat of the Papacy to Avignon, in 
France, after the death of Boniface VIII, and by the 
great and terrible schism that followed soon after it 
was removed again to Rome. For fifty years there 
were two rival lines of popes, each anathematizing 
the other, and denouncing each other's crimes with 
about equal truth. Europe was nearly equally di- 
vided between them; and, as Bonnechose says, 'the 
nations that were subject to the Pope, and bent the 
knee before this new divinity, knew not where to 
find their idol.' Though the Council of Constance 
healed the schism, it did not obliterate from the mind 
of Europe the questionings to which it gave rise. 



352 PREDICTIONS 

And as tne arrogance, and rapacity, and immorality 
of the court of Rome increased, kings and people 
were so alienated, that, when Luther burned the 
Pope's bull, the Pope could not induce the secular 
powers to burn him; and soon one half of Europe 
was in open revolt against the papal corporation. 

" Prom that day to this, the conflagration has gone 
on in different parts of the great city. In some 
parts it has been, for a time, extinguished by torrents 
of blood. But it is a fire kindled by God, the Omni- 
present, the Almighty. Before it can be quenched, 
God must be dethroned." 

[V. 12. And they heard a great voice from 
heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And 
they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their 
enemies beheld them] — In my humble judgment, 
Martin Luther is the embodiment of this voice from 
heaven; and his loud voice was heard, as an angel 
from heaven, calling upon the people of God to come 
out of the great city, the papal Corporation, forsake 
spiritual Sodom, and disavow allegiance to its Egyp- 
tian taskmasters. And his great voice was heard 
especially at the Diet of Worms, when, in the pres- 
ence of two hundred and five crowned and mitered 
heads, beside that of more than ten thousand of his 
own countrymen, who were assembled on the occa- 
sion, he paused after completing his defense, in show- 
ing the corruptions of the Papacy and advocating 
pure and undefiled Christianity, having God for its 



OF THE PROPHETS. 353 

author, truth for its matter, and the salvation of man 
for its object. He invited all to come to the pure 
fountain of truth, and forsake the bitter waters of 
Soclom — to leave the pontifical Corporation, the great 
city, and take their stand upon the foundation of 
eternal truth — to take God's word as the only rule 
of their faith and practice. It was then he uttered 
that memorable sentence, respecting the Bible, which 
electrified all Germany and set the foundation of the 
papal mountains on fire. It was then he laid down 
the Bible as the corner-stone of God's spiritual house, 
and said, " Come up hither," — all ye living stones, 
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, to be 
built together into a holy temple. "Here I take my 
stand; I can not conscientiously act otherwise ; God 
help me. Amen." 

Then it was that the Spirit of life, from God, en- 
tered into them ; for God's word is spirit and life — 
the means of spiritual and eternal life — and they 
stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them 
which saw them. It was then quietly, like the invisible 
atoms of water, that they arose from the sloughs of 
Romanism, into a visble cloud of witnesses for the 
truth, and constituted the Protestant Christian 
Church ; and from which the refreshing showers of 
purity, truth, and righteousness have rained down 
upon the nations. 

[V. 13. And the same hour was there a great 
earthquake ! and the tenth part of the city fell, and 



354 PREDICTIONS 

in the earthquake were slain of men, seven thousand ; 
and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to 
the God of heaven] — The same hour is to be under- 
stood in the same sense as we have interpreted the 
half hour of silence in heaven, in the former part of 
our work, as being 60 years, which is to be dated at 
the commencement 'of the Reformation, or from about 
A. d. 1517 to 1577. In this period took place the 
separation between protestants and papists. 

[And in the same hour was there a great earth- 
quake] — We will let history answer this question, 
after merely stating what we have previously ex- 
plained, that an earthquake symbolizes a change in 
political government, and therefore a great earth- 
quake indicates a great political revolution. 

[And the tenth part of the city fell] — This city is 
the great city mentioned above, which was divided 
into ten wards, or kingdoms, which was strictly true 
of the Papal Corporation. It claimed supreme do- 
minion over the ten kingdoms of Europe, into which 
the old Roman Empire was divided. Bishop Lloyd 
and others enumerate these divisions as follows ; viz : 
" 1. The kingdom of the Huns. 2. The kingdom 
of' the Ostrogoths. 3. The kingdom of the Visi- 
goths. 4. The kingdom of the Franks. 5. The 
kingdom of the Yandals. 6. The kingdom of the 
Sueves and Allans. 7. The kingdom of the Burgun- 
clians. 8. The kingdom of the Heruli, Bugii, Scyr- 
ri, and other tribes, which composed the Italian 



OF THE PROPIIETS. 355 

kingdom of Odoacer. 9. The kingdom of the Sax- 
ons. And 10. The kingdom of the Lombards." 

. These were the general divisions of Europe at the 
end of the sixth century, and their landmarks were 
very little removed from their ancient positions, in 
the sixteenth century, at the time of the Reformation. 
They have, in some instances, changed their names; 
but their modern, is nearly the same as their ancient 
geography. 

The tenth part of this great city fell. A tenth 
part was sundered, by the great earthquake, from the 
great Corporation. This was none other than that 
ancient division of the city, known as the kingdom 
of the Saxons ; and, at the time of the Reformation, 
it was the Anglo-Saxon Ward of the city which fell 
from its allegiance to the Mayor of the great Cor- 
poration. Luther stirred up the people of Sax- 
ony, and the Germanic confederacy to disavow all 
allegiance to the Mayor, alderman, and laws of the 
great city, and to incorporate for themselves. 

And Henry VIII, of England, like a noble alder- 
man, disavowed all allegiance to the pontifical Mayor 
and officers, and incorporated for himself, and de- 
clared himself and successors to be the supreme head 
on earth of his corporation. 

[And in the earthquake were slain of men seven 
thousand] — This earthquake, as we have already in- 
timated, is emblematic of violent commotions among 
the persecutors of God's people, and revolutions in 



356 PREDICTIONS 

the kingdoms or divisions of the great city. And 
the overwhelming effect of this earthquake was to 
slay seven thousand men. However, I apprehend, 
that its true signification is indicated by the marginal 
reading, which is the literal rendering of the original 
Greek — " seven thousand names of men, or men of 
name." This was literally fulfilled in England, un- 
der Henry VIII. It is estimated that about seven 
thousand clergy of the great city, or Roman Catho- 
lic Corporation, were deposed from office — were po- 
litically and ecclesiastically slain. They w T ere di- 
vested of their names and rights of office, and had 
no more power or privileges than if they were dead. 

But from the consideration that earthquake and 
the fall of the city are to be understood in a figura- 
tive sense, and as great political events, therefore, 
to be consistent, I conclude that the slaying of these 
men is to be taken in the same sense ; and that it 
was the killing of the names, the power, or titles of 
the clergy, or the men of name ; and I think I am 
fully sustained in my position by the facts of the 
case. According to Cobbett's History of the Refor- 
mation under Henry VIII, there were in England 
not less than seven thousand Roman Catholic clergy 
deposed and divested of their names, or power ; for 
name often signifies power and authority. 

[And the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory 
to the God of heaven] — The remnant of the great 
city were sore amazed at the strange events occur- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 357 

ring; and were ready to acknowledge that the hand 
of God was in the great work of the Reformation. 

[And they gave glory to the God of heaven] — By 
turning away from the counsels of men to the com- 
mandments of God, and from worshiping the creature 
to glorify the Creator. Those persons who had been 
under the dominion of those men who were slain, 
now received the pure doctrines of the Gospel by 
means of the Reformation, and glorified the God of 
heaven. The following quotations will give addi- 
tional considerations why these seven thousand men 
were slain, and the prophecy fulfilled as predicted 
in this Revelation. 

"The faith- violating maxim was avowed, not only 
by the deputation, but also by the council. The in- 
fallible assembly, boldly, roundly, and expressly de- 
clared, that ' no faith or promise, prejudicial to Cath- 
olicism, was to be kept with John Huss, by natural, 
divine, or human law.' Prejudicial to Catholicism, 
in this case, could signify no infraction on the faith 
of the Church ; but merely the permission of a man, 
convicted of heresy, to escape with his life. Faith, 
therefore, according to the council, should be violated 
rather than allow a heretic to live." 

" This maxim, in this manner, prior to the Refor- 
mation, obtained general reception in the popish 
communion. The Roman hierarchs, as the viceroys 
of heaven, continued, according to interest or fancy, 

and especially with persons convicted or suspected 

o-i 
ol 



358 PREDICTIONS 

of schism or apostasy, to invalidate oaths or vows 
of all descriptions. General councils arrogated the 
same authority, and practiced the same infernal prin- 
ciple. Universal harmony, without a breath of op- 
position, prevailed on this topic through papal Chris- 
tendom. This abomination, therefore, in all its 
frightful deformity, constituted an integral part of 
Popery. 

" The Reformation, on this subject, commenced a 
new era. The deformity of the papal system re- 
mained, in a great measure, unnoticed amid the star- 
less night of the Dark Ages, and even in the dim 
twilight which dawned on the world at the revival of 
letters. The hideous spectre, associated with kin- 
dred horrors and concealed in congenial obscurivy, 
escaped for a long time the execration of man. But 
the light of the Reformation exposed the monster in 
all its frightfulness. The Bible began to shed its 
lustre through the world. The beams of the Son of 
Righteousness, reflected from the book of God, poured 
a flood of moral radiance over the earth. Man 
opened his eyes, and the foul spirits of darkness fled. 
Intellectual light shed its rays through the mental 
gloom of the votary of Popery, as well as the patron 
of Protestanism. 

u Abettors of Romanism, in the general diffusion 
of scriptural information and rational philosophy, 
felt ashamed of ancient absurdity ; and have, in con- 
sequence, disowned or modified several tenets of tl-.eir 



OF THE PROPHETS. 359 

religion, which were embraced, with unshaken fidelity, 
by their orthodox ancestors. 

" This change is an edifying specimen of the boast- 
ed immutability of Romanism, and one of the tri- 
umphs of the Reformation, by which it was produced. 
The universal renunciation of the hateful maxim is a 
trophy of the great revolution, which Doyle, in a 
late publication, has denominated the grand apos- 
tasy." 

[Y. 14. The second wo is past; behold the third 
wo cometh quickly !] — The first wo or calamity was 
brought upon the earth by the Crusades, and con- 
tinued to exercise its woful influence 150 years. 
The second wo or calamity was brought upon the 
earth by the establishment and results of the Inqui- 
sition, from 1229, or more properly from the time 
of the Council of Alby, 1254, to 1563, including a 
period of over 300 years. The principles and prac- 
tice of the Inquisition, when viewed in their results, 
were the most horrible wo or calamity which ever 
cursed the earth. The power of the Inquisition was 
not broken at once. It continued to stretch out its 
arm of power after the commencement of the Refor- 
mation ; and was the most formidable influence with 
which the religion of peace had to contend, after its 
resurrection from a deathlike slumber of more than a 
thousand years. 

We have noted the coincidence between prophecy 
and history under seven consecutive periods ; from 



360 PREDICTIONS 

the advent of Christ to A. D. 420, which is the period 
of the seven seals. We have noticed and compared 
the coincidence between prophecy and history, under 
each of the seals and trumpets, and have shown a 
most beautiful agreement and consequent fulfillment. 

This present chapter, however, has led us to the 
contemplation of a period including a far wider range, 
equal to 1260 years ; dating from 803, and sweeping 
on over seven periods of 180 years each, including 
the two last seal periods and six trumpet periods, and 
still onward to the end of the seventh trumpet period, 
to A. D. 1680. 

Causes began to work at the commencement of this 
period, A. D. 303, the result of which none but God 
could have foreseen and foreknown; for it was a pe- 
riod of forty-two generations ; a period full of vicis- 
situdes. Empires arose, flourished and passed away ; 
the Augustine, the Byzantine, the Saracene, the 
Genghis Khan, and the Ottoman. And kingdoms have 
changed owners. And the house of York and Lan- 
caster, Bourbon and Hapsburg, have felt in their 
turns the down-trampling power of the " Man of 
Sin;*' and have heard the thundering bulls of the 
Vatican, asserting the right of pontifical power over 
all people, kingdoms and empires. 

This we call the period of treading down the holy 
city, and oppressing and killing the two witnesses. 
This period ended, and the second wo passed, at the 
same appointed time. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 361 

[Behold the third wo cometh quickly] — It will be 
fully described under the seventh trumpet, which the 
seventh angel is now prepared to sound, to call forth 
the holy warriors once more to the battle, and the 
blood of the holy city to be shed once more in the 
long-continued conflict between right and wrong ; 
and this wo is now, in 1864, on this nation ; it is 
caused on account of the war between Liberty and 
Slavery. Under this prophetic trumpet, like under 
the seventh trumpet sounded by Joshua, when Jeri- 
cho fell; so when this trumpet was sounded at the 
command of Jesus Christ, the captain of our salva- 
tion, there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of 
the great city, Spiritual Sodom, fell ; and 7000 of her 
mighty men were slain, and the remnant of her host 
were affrighted, and honored God by ceasing to 
trample down his holy city and oppress his two wit- 
nesses. 

Then the spirit of life from God entered into the 
two witnesses ; they stood upon their feet, were re- 
stored to their primitive place and dignity. Their 
testimony was again heard and heeded; and great 
was the company of them that believed, and were 
faithful unto death, and ascended to heaven in a 
cloud, as did the heavenly Master, to sit down with 
him in his throne, as he had conquered and sat down 
in his Father's throne. 

Some of the scenes which we have already de- 
scribed, took place under the seventh trumpet ; and 



362 PREDICTIONS 

now we shall recapitulate these events, and show 
more fully the dealings of Divine Providence in the 
affairs of the Church and world, in overthrowing 
wrong and establishing right. 

[V. 15. And the seventh angel sounded: and 
there were great voices in heaven, saying, The king- 
doms of this world are become the kingdom of our 
Lord, and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever 
and ever] — This angel began to sound his trumpet 
as the symbol of joyful triumph, A. D., 1500, to 
A. D., 1680. And by the time one hundred and 
eighty years had wheeled away in noiseless flight, 
the great and glorious events described in the sequel 
of this chapter were fully accomplished. This was 
the period of the Reformation. It began at the time 
of the invention of printing, and the revival of let- 
ters, arts, and philosophy. It imparted the spirit 
of life from God to man. It gave new life, spirit, 
and power, to every enterprise of human society, 
Through the power of the press, .the voice of Divine 
Truth was heard as from heaven, in the thousands of 
Bibles which, during this period, were printed, and 
thrown broadcast into the laps of the people ; and 
to them it proved to be the good seed of the kingdom 
of Heaven. Great was the company, and powerful 
the voices, which, as from heaven, called men from 
dumb idols, helpless saints, and worthless priests, to 
repentance, purity, and present salvation by faith in 
Jesus Christ, and not by the merit of good works ; 



OF THE PROPHETS. 363 

and yet to work out their salvation with fear and 
trembling, continually day by day to evince the sin- 
cerity of their faith, by a life of humble obedience to 
the commands of God ; and looking for their reward, 
not as of debt, but of free grace : for, after we have 
done all that is commanded, we are unprofitable ser- 
vants, we have only done our duty. 

[ The kingdoms of this world are become the king- 
dom of our Lord and his Christ] — This is the Period 
in which the continent of America was first discov- 
ered by men acquainted with modern civilization and 
Christianity. Here was opened up an asylum for 
the oppressed of all nations. Here Christianity has 
a new world, a fair field to sow the seed of truth; 
and a harvest so great, as to call into action every 
resource of her power. Well might all the heavenly 
host, all the family on earth and in heaven, join to- 
gether to magnify God, that he had utterly discom- 
fited his enemies, and rendered his friends glorious 
in the eyes of all nations. No wonder, with the 
cheering prospects of the Reformation, and the bright, 
beautiful, and cheering scenes of a new world before 
them, which had been hid for ages behind the vail of 
western waters, that they should be ready to exclaim 
in the fullness of their hearts — the kingdoms of this 
world are become the kingdom of our Lord, and of 
his anointed people, who, by their anointing, which 
is of God, have become kings and priests to offer 
spiritual sacrifices ! No wonder that they proclaimed 



364 PREDICTIONS 

from the mountain-top, The kingdoms of this world, 
which the devil once claimed as his, are become the 
kingdom of our Lord, by royal conquest, and of his 
Christ ; and he shall reign forever and ever ; for, 
after this Period, Satan shall never have complete 
dominion over mankind. 

[V. 16. And the four-and-twenty elders, which 
sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces 
and worshiped God] — The twenty-four elders sym- 
bolize all Jews and Christians, who fear God and 
work righteousness ; twelve representing the Patri- 
archs, and twelve the Apostles ; and are, therefore, 
the representatives of the true Church of Christ, 
which is also called the holy city. Here is an ex- 
ample for us. They fell upon their faces and wor- 
shiped God. Being raised from the degradation of 
bondage and the dust of death, through the power 
of God, by the Reformation, they are now permitted 
to worship God in spirit and in truth, without hav- 
ing their minds distracted by the presence of dumb 
idols, and their affections divided between creature 
and Creator. 

[V. 17. Saying, We give thee thanks, Lord God 
Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come ; be- 
cause thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and 
hast reigned] — This is a most beautiful, sublime, 
and comprehensive doxology, in which the whole 
Church unite with all their ransomed powers, to 
praise him who is with his Church always, who was 



OF THE PROPHETS. 365 

with it in ail ages, and who will be with his people, 
and his people with him ; for he is to come and raise 
the dead, and judge the world, and reign with his 
glorified saints forever. The eternity of God is fully 
asserted, and his power, wisdom, and goodness made 
known. This expresses the infinitude of God. Al- 
mighty, his power ; God, his infinite wisdom ; Lord, 
his incarnate goodness in the redemption, salvation, 
and dominion over his people, for which w T e give 
thee thanks, Lord God Almighty, which art, and 
wast, and art to come. 

[ Because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, 
and hast reigned ] — I)uring the Period in which the 
holy city was trodden down, and the two witnesses 
clothed in sackcloth, it seemed as if God stood afar 
off; that he had forgotten to be gracious; that he 
had laid aside his great powerj and permitted the 
w T orld to go its own way. But at the time of the 
Reformation, God awoke as a mighty man of war ; 
he took to himself his great power, and shook terri- 
bly the earth. Satan had exercised his power, and 
reigned, in the person of the " Man of Sin," for 
more than a thousand years. But now, the two wit- 
nesses being resurrected, and restored to their 
former state and dignity, a glorious change comes 
over the whole scene of characters, actions, and 
events. 

The Gospel, which is called the power of God, is 
disseminated, being distributed among all nations, as 



366 PREDICTIONS 

the system of laws by which. Immanuel reigns, and 
will forever reign ; for it is called the everlasting 
Gospel, not, perhaps, in its offers, but its conse- 
quences. By the testimony of the two witnesses, 
God exercises his great power, by which he consumes 
his enemies, and saves to the utmost all who accept 
and submit to his terms of salvation, and hereby ex- 
alts his Church, the Holy City. Since the time of 
the Reformation, through the great power of the 
Gospel, he has reigned in the hearts of millions who 
have passed over Jordan to the heavenly Jerusalem, 
to join the Church triumphant. 

" The Gospel, like its author, is alive forevermore. 
It has all the dignity of age, without any of its de- 
crepitude ; all the vigor of youth, without its inex- 
perience. As an institution, it stretches farther 
back than any nation in the civilized world ; and as 
a spirit of reform, it has wrestled with every phase 
of wrong which eighteen centuries have witnessed. 
It is more ancient than the oldest countries of the 
old world ; its preachers spoke in twenty tongues 
centuries before the government was established, 
which is represented by the Vatican ; it stood by the 
desert fountain from which all modern history flows, 
and dropped into it the sweetening branch of truth 
and peace. And yet its vigor has not been paral- 
yzed by the evils which it has assailed, nor by the 
corrupt institutions which have too often disgraced 
it in the eyes of men. As an influence, it has never 



OF THE PROPHETS. 8G7 

been so powerful, so ambitious, or so daring as it is 
to-day. 

" Wherever Christianity has been published, since 
its first diffusion by the apostles, it has broken in 
upon the carnival of oppression, and stopped the 
fierce revels that made humanity their sport. At its 
sound, those who were trampled down, have started 
to their feet ; the children of the soil have looked 
up, and felt over them the canopy of heaven; the 
debased have grown conscious of the stirrings of a 
soul : and they that had been treated as the kindred 
of the brute, have burned with the aspirations of 
the skies. 

"The principles which, fifteen centuries ago, de- 
nounced the horrible slavery of Pagan Rome ; which, 
earlier still, rebuked the polished corruption of Cor- 
inth, und the idolatry of Ephesus, now find eloquent 
lips through which to assail evils, corruptions, and 
social wrongs of the nineteenth century, and have 
possessed themselves of agencies by which they build 
bethels for neglected seamen, erect hospitals for the 
protection of the destitute, and scatter the words of 
truth, with its attendant blessings, on every benighted 
shore." 

[V. 18. And the nations were angry, and thy 
wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they 
should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward 
unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, 
and to them that fear thy name, small and great ; 



368 PREDICTIONS 

and shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth ] 
— Many of the nations, at the time of the Reforma- 
tion, were angry against Protestants, being excited 
by the pontifical hierarchy ; for they felt that a power 
attended the Gospel which reproved them of sin, 
righteousness, and of a judgment to come ; and, 
therefore, tormented them ; and, hence, they gave 
renewed evidence of anger. 

But the wrath of God — His disapprobation was 
hereby revealed from heaven, against all unrighteous- 
ness and ungodliness of men, who hold the truth in, 
or with, unrighteous precepts and practices. 

[And the time of the dead] — Witnesses spoken 
of in the previous part of the chapter. This trum- 
pet period fulfilled and completed the time in which 
these witnesses were to be raised, after being dead 
and kept in the streets of the great city twelve hun- 
dred and sixty years, and their resurrection was 
fully consummated before the end of the seventh 
trumpet period, A. "D., 1620, that they should be 
judged immediately after their resurrection, which 
actually took place in the last twenty years of this 
period. 

To judge, is to compare facts or ideas, and per- 
ceive their agreement or disagreement ; to hear and 
determine ; to consider accurately for the purpose 
of forming an opinion or conclusion, and thus to dis- 
tinguish truth from falsehood. This is the very kind 
of judgment which was passed upon the two wit- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 369 

nesses by King James' translators of the holy Scrip- 
tures. 

[ And that thou shouldst give reward unto thy ser- 
vants the prophets] — And by thus judging the two 
witnesses, they each are heard and accredited ac- 
cording to their true merit, both the Jewish and the 
Christian prophets ; and are thus rewarded accord- 
ing to their works. And by this reward they are 
the standard of authority, the measuring rod, the 
rule of action among men, and every one is permit- 
ted to hear the voices of the prophets, in their own 
tongue wherein they were born. 

[And the saints] — The holy city are to be re- 
warded according to the two testimonies, the Old 
and New Testaments; these are to compose their 
rule of action after the Gentiles shall cease to tread 
them down ; which was fully accomplished by the 
end of the seventh trumpet period, in the year 1680. 

[And them that fear thy name, small and great] 
— In every nation men are to be judged according 
to the correct and strict testimony of the Scrip- 
tures — every one according to his works ; and, there- 
fore, their accountability will be measured by their 
ability. Where little is given, little is required; 
where much is given, much will be required : for, he 
that knoweth his master's will, and cloeth it not, 
shall be beaten with many stripes ; but he that 
knoweth not, and doeth not his master's will, shall be 
beaten with few. The Gospel is aggressive, and its 



870 PREDICTIONS 

ultimate object is to utterly consume and destroy 
every system which is inconsistent with, or opposed 
to, it. From the quotations we have given, the 
great city is diametrically opposed to it ; and the 
grand object of the horrid Corporation has been to 
destroy men's lives ; while the grand object of the 
Gospel is to save men's lives, by destroying those 
principles, systems, and practices which destroy men, 
soul and body, here, and eternally hereafter. All 
the while the holy city was being trodden down, and 
the two witnessess lay dead in the streets of the 
great city, the constant effort of the Man of Sin was 
to destroy or corrupt the earth, political government; 
whatever else he did was the exception, and not the 
rule of action by which he propagated and maintained 
his system of doctrines, duties, and practice in the 
world. 

[Y. 19. And the temple of God was opened in 
heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of 
his testament, and there were lightnings, and voices, 
and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail] 
— During the long period of revolving ages in which 
the holy city was trodden down by Gentile feet, the 
true temple of God was shut up ; but, at the time of 
the Reformation, the temple of God was re-opened, 
and the true worship of God was re-established and 
performed in the Christian Church ; and whatever the 
great city had added to, or taken from, the true tem- 
ple service, was restored or removed, when it was 



OF THE PROPHETS. 371 

again opened in heaven for the pure and heavenly 
worship of God. 

[And there was seen in his temple the ark of his 
testament] — This is the Church of Christ, symbol- 
ized by his temple ; for the former temple, which 
was the type of this, had been destroyed. We shall 
soon see whether his temple is the Roman pontifical 
Church, to the exclusion of all others. The ancient 
temple was to be a house of prayer or worship of 
God for ail nations ; so of the new temple. 

[The ark of his testament was seen in the temple] 
— The ark is the symbol of God's people, his faith- 
ful servants, and true worshipers. The ark was to 
contain the law and the testimony; so Christians 
keep God's law. They are the ark in the Church of 
Christ; and they are to keep the testimony of the 
Holy Spirit; and further, this is to be their rejoic- 
ing — the testimony of a good conscience, that in 
simplicity and godly sincerity they have their con- 
versation in the world. None are truly members of 
this temple, unless, like the ancient ark of the cove- 
nant, they keep faithfully the law and the testimony. 

[And there were lightnings] — These were evidences 
that the great changes produced at the Reformation 
were the result of supernatural power, and light, and 
heavenly influences ; and these glorious events were 
to occur very rapidly, and be controlled and directed 
only by him who prepares the lightnings for the rain, 
that there may be seed- time and harvest. 



872 PREDICTIONS 

[And voices] — Of the Reformers, proclaiming the 
word of God, the entrance of which in the mind is as 
lightning, and is the power of God unto salvation to 
every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to 
the Greek. Those voices, at. and since the Reforma- 
tion, have been bold to proclaim the whole counsel 
of God, and cry aloud in protestation against the 
corruptions, errors, and vices of all mankind. 

[And thunderings] — Supernatural evidence that 
showers of blessings, from clouds of mercy, would 
descend and water the good seed sown by the hus- 
bandman called and sent out by the Lord of the 
spiritual harvest. 

[And an earthquake] — A great political change 
which took place at the close of the seventh trumpet 
period, about 1680, especially in the governments of 
Great Britain and France. 

[And great hail] — As hail comes down from heaven 
— not like the snow, rain, and dew, as blessings upon 
earth, but as a curse or sore affliction, so this great 
hail assumes to come down from heaven. It sym- 
bolizes the great destruction which came upon those 
who protested against the horrid Inquisition, and the 
abominable corruptions of the Roman Catholic 
Church; and for which they suffered incredibly about 
the time of the horrid massacre of St. Bartholomew's 
day, in 1572, as we shall now see: 

"Leo X, in a bull issued in 1520, ordered all to 
shun Luther and his adherents. His holiness com- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 373 

mandcd sovereigns to chase the abettors of Luther- 
anism out of their dominions. Adrian, in 1522, 
deprecated the spread of Lutheranism, and admon- 
ishep princes and people against the toleration of 
this abomination; and, if mild methods should be 
unavailing, to employ fire and faggot. 

"Paul IV distinguished himself by his recom- 
mendation of the Inquisition for the extermination of 
heresy. This tribunal, his infallibility accounted the 
sheet-anchor of the papacy, and the chief battery 
for the overthrow of heresy. The pontiff reckoned 
the Gospel, with all its divine institutions, as noth- 
ing, compared with the holy office for the defense of 
the holy see. Paul was right. The Gospel may 
support the Church, but the Inquisition is the proper 
instrument to protect- the popedom. The Inquisition, 
accordingly, was the darling theme of his supremacy's 
thoughts. He conferred additional authority on the 
sacred institution, and recommended it to the cardi- 
nals and his successors with his parting breath. 
When the cold hand of death was pressing on his 
lips, and the soul just going to appear before its God, 
he enjoined the use of the Inquisition and expired, 
recommending murder and inhumanity." 

" The reason of this waste of life was enmity to 
heresy or Protestantism. A feAV indeed suggested 
the pretense of a conspiracy. But this, even Bos- 
suet grants, every person knew to be a mere pre- 
tense. The populace, tutored by the priesthood, 



374 PREDICTIONS 

accounted themselves, in shedding heretical blood, 
f the agents of divine justice,' and engaged ' in doing 
God service.' The king accompanied with the queen 
and princes of the blood, and all the French court, 
went to the parliament, and acknowledged that all 
these sanguinary transactions were done by his au- 
thority, i The parliament publicly eulogized the 
king's wisdom,' which had effected the effusion of so 
much heretical blood. 

" His majesty also went to mass, and returned 
solemn thanks to God for the glorious victory ob- 
tained over heresy. He ordered medals to be coined 
to perpetuate its memory. A medal accordingly 
was struck for the purpose, with this inscription, 
PIETY EXCITED JUSTICE. Piety forsooth, 
propelled to murder, and the immolation of forty 
thousand people was an act of justice. Piety and 
justice, it seems, aroused to deeds of cruelty, the 
idea of which afterward, says Sully, caused even the 
inhuman perpetrator Charles, in spite of himself, to 
shudder. 

" The carnage, sanctioned in this manner by the 
French king, parliament and people, was also ap- 
proved by the Pope and the Roman court. Rome 
- from her hatred of heresy, received the news with 
unspeakable joy. The Pope went in procession to 
the church of Saint Louis, to render thanks to God 
for the happy victory.' His legate in France felici- 
tated his most Christian majesty in the pontiff's 



OF THE PROPHETS. 375 

name, ' and praised the exploit, so long meditated and 
so happily executed, for the good of religion.' The 
massacre, says Mezeray, f was extolled before the 
king as the triumph of the Church.' 

" Spain rejoiced also in the tragedy as the defeat 
of Protestantism. This nation has ever shown itself 
the friend of the Papacy, and the deadly enemy of 
the Reformation ; and this spirit, on this occasion, 
appeared in the joy manifested by the Spanish peo- 
ple for the murder of the French Huguenots. 

" England, like Germany, France, Spain and the 
Netherlands, was the scene of persecution and mar- 
tyrdom. Philip and Mary, exercised the royal 
authority in the British nation, issued a commission 
for 'the burning of heretics.' The queen, in this 
manifesto, f professed her resolution to support just- 
tice and Catholicism, and to eradicate error and 
heresy; and ordered her heretical subjects, there- 
fore, to be committed before the people to the 
flames.' This, her majesty alleged, would show her 
detestation of heterodoxy, and serve as an example 
to other Christians, to shun the contagion of heresy. 
Her death was the only favor she ever conferred on 
her unfortunate and persecuted subjects. 

" Popish persecution raged, in this manner, from 
the commencement of the Reformation till its estab- 
lishment. The flow of this overwhelming tide began 
at the accession of Constantine to the throne of the 
Roman empire ; and, having prevailed for a long 



376 PREDICTIONS 

period, gradually ebbed, after the era of Protestant- 
ism. The Popedom, on this topic, was compelled, 
though with reluctance and inconsistency, to vary its 
profession and practice. A change was effected in 
an unchangeable communion. Some symptoms of 
the old disease indeed still appear. The spirit, like 
latent heat, is inactive rather than extinguished. 
But the general cry is for liberality or even latitu- 
dinarianism. The shout, even among the advocates 
of Romanism, is in favor of religious liberty, unfet- 
tered conscience, and universal toleration. The In- 
quisition of Spain and Portugal, with all its appara- 
tus of racks, wheels and gibbets, has lost its efficacy, 
and its palace at Goa is in ruins. The bright sun 
of India enlightens its late dungeons, which are now 
inhabited, not by the victim of popish persecution, 
but by ' the owl, the dragon and the wild beast of 
the desert.' 

" The days of persecution, in all probability, will 
never return to dishonor Christianity and curse man- 
kind. The Inquisition, with all its engines of tor- 
ment, may rest forever. ' The Inquisitor may exer- 
cise his malevolence, and vent his ferocity in long 
and deep execrations against the growing light of 
philosophy and the Reformation ; but will never 
more regale his ears with the groans of the tortured 
victim, or feast his eyes in witnessing an Act of 
Faith. The popedom may regret its departed power. 
The Roman pontiff and hierarchy may indulge in 



OF THE PROPHETS. 377 

dreams of future greatness, prefer vain prayers for 
the restoration of persecution, or, in bitter lamenta- 
tion, weep over the ashes of the Inquisition. But 
these hopes, supplications and tears, in all likeli- 
hood, will be forever unavailing. Rome's spiritual 
artillery, is, in a great measure, become useless; and 
the secular arm no longer, as formerly, enforces ec- 
clesiastical denunciations, or consigns the abettors 
of heresy to the flames." 

What an infinite wisdom is displayed in the predic- 
tion of all these events, and that too in their chron- 
ological order! What a grandeur in conception; 
what sublimity of diction; what boldness of meta- 
phor, symbol, emblem and allegory ! In view of all 
the great events which have passed before us, in our 
investigations of this Chapter, and the many coinci- 
dences between Prophecy and History, as we have 
shown in our brief quotations, we may safely say, 
that this is one of the most important parts of the 
whole Revelation; evincing more fully than any 
other part, the continued watchfulness of Divine 
Providence over the persecutions and conflicts of 
the holy city, and the two witnesses ; and the victory 
he has given his people over the power and corrup- 
tions of the great city, the Papal Corporation. And 
thus the word of the Lord has been fulfilled in regard 
to the Pope of Rome, as predicted by the Prophet. 

" And thou, profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose 
day is come, when iniquity shall have an end ; Thus 



378 PREDICTIONS 

saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem, and take 
off the crown ; this shall not be the same : exalt him 
that is low, and abase him that is high. I will over- 
turn, overturn, overturn it ; and it shall be no more, 
until he come whose right it is ; and I will give it 
him."— Ezekiel xxi, 25-27. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 379 

CHAPTER XII. 

REVELATION CHAP. XII. 
PART THIRD, PERIOD THIRD— FROM 420 TO 1680. 

This chapter represents the Woman, the Church 
of God, as having laid aside her sackcloth, and now 
clothed with her beautiful garments, and adorned 
with the Sun : signifying the light, comfort and pro- 
tection which she receives from God, and that he sup- 
plies all her wants ; spreads a table for her in the 
wilderness, in the presence of her enemies ; for the 
Lord God is a Sun and a Shield ; he will give grace 
and glory ; and no good thing will he withhold from 
them that walk uprightly. 

Whosoever does the will of God, walks uprightly, 
and has the witness in himself, that he has not fol- 
lowed a cunningly devised fable ! The Woman be- 
gan to go into the wilderness, from the time of the 
unholy union of Church and State, A. D. 303, in the 
days of Constantine, and was completely in the wil- 
derness by A. D. 360, and continued there until the 
Reformation by Luther ; when she began to come out, 
and had a little rest by the space of forty years. But 
persecution again arose ; and she began a second 
time to go into the wilderness ; and she sailed as a 
great Eagle, in 1563, and by 1620 she was in the 



380 PREDICTIONS 

wilderness of America, which is her place, and to be 
the inheritance of all her loyal children forever. 

CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL ANNOTATIONS. 

[V. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in 
heaven; a woman clothed with the Sun, and the 
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 
twelve stars] — That this woman symbolizes the 
Church of Christ, which is also represented by the 
metaphor of the holy city, in the previous chapter, 
is admitted by all orthodox Christian expositors. It 
is not to be doubted, then, that there was great cause 
of wonder to the whole family of God in heaven and 
on earth, that the holy city, the two witnesses, and 
the temple, should be so suddenly restored to their 
former state, dignity and glory, which is here repre- 
sented by the emblem of a woman arrayed in most 
glorious apparel. This is Zion ; her light has come ; 
the true light, which had been obscured for more 
than a thousand years, broke forth at the Reforma- 
tion, as the sun going forth at the morning hour, 
after a long night of clouds and darkness. She was 
clothed, honored and protected by the Sun of Righte- 
ousness ; and therefore he became her Sun and shield, 
and gave her grace and glory ; and no good thing- 
will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. 

[And the moon under her feet] — The Jewish 
Church and every other organization being as infe- 
rior to her, as the moon is to the sun. And what- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 381 

ever light they possess, except what is reflected from 
her, is as useless as moonshine in daytime. 

Bishop Newton understands this as applying to the 
Jewish economy, for it was the shadow of good things 
to come. " The moon is the lesser light, ruling over 
the night, and deriving all its illumination from the 
sun ; in like manner, the Jewish dispensation was 
the bright moonlight of the world, and reflected a 
portion of the glorious light of the Gospel. At the 
rising of the sun, the night is ended, and the lunar 
light no longer necessary, as the sun, which is re- 
flected from her, shines directly upon the earth, 
clothing it with beauty, comfort and glory. Exactly 
in the same way has the whole Jewish system of 
types and shadows been superseded by the Gospel 
economy, as exemplified by the incarnation, doc- 
trines, practice, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, as- 
cension, and intercession of Jesus Christ." The 
Jewish system was the foundation on which the 
Christian system was built, and sustains this neces- 
sary relation to it. But the Gospel system is the 
temple, complete in all its' proportions, order, beauty, 
grandeur and glory ; reflecting the light of heaven's 
own pure day back upon its own foundations. 

[And a crown of twelve stars upon her head] — 
This is a, very proper emblem of the twelve Apostles, 
who, under God, were the builders of the Christian 
Church, and by whom the Gospel was first promul- 
gated. Behold these master-builders erecting this 
33 



382 PREDICTIONS 

magnificent temple ! It is faultless in materials, 
architecture, order, proportion, capacity, beauty and 
grandeur ! Now, behold them carrying up the cap- 
stone, as borne on angel wings, to complete the glo- 
rious superstructure ! It is laid to its place, and all 
is complete ! And now, behold them as they stand, 
like statues, upon the top of the holy temple, look- 
ing up to the great Architect, and shouting, " Grace, 
grace unto it ! "' 

This temple is built upon the foundation laid in 
Zion. It is not built uponei an apostle, or all the 
apostles ; but upon Jesus Christ, who is the founda- 
tion of the apostles and prophets, even the chief 
corner-stone. He is the true foundation, forever sup 
porting his Church by the power, doctrines, and 
promises of his Gospel, 

0, may we all be wise betimes to enter this holy 
temple, and find it to be the city of everlasting refuge 
and salvation ! And may all his builders, like the 
holy Apostles, be faithful over the house of God; for 
"they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of 
the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteous- 
ness, shall shine as the STARS forever and ever."' 

It was from causes seemingly fortuitous, and from 
a source very inconsiderable, that all the mighty 
effects of the Reformation flowed. Leo X, when 
raised to the papal throne, found the revenues of the 
Church exhausted by the vast projects of his two 
ambitious predecessors. His own temper, naturally 



OF THE PROPHETS. 383 

liberal and enterprising, rendered him incapable of 
severe and patient economy, and his schemes for ag- 
grandizing the family of Medicis, his love of splendor, 
and his munificence in rewarding men of genius, in- 
volved him daily in new expenses, in order to pro- 
vide a fund for which he tried every device that the 
fertile invention of priests had fallen upon, to drain 
the credulous multitude of their wealth. Among 
others, he had recourse to a sale of indulgences. The 
form of these indulgences was as follows : 

" May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon 
thee, and absolve thee, by the merits of his most holy 
passion. And I, by his authority, that of his blessed 
apostles, Peter and Paul, and of the most holy Pope, 
granted and committed to me in these parts, do ab- 
solve thee, first, from all ecclesiastical censures, in 
whatever manner they may have been incurred ; then 
from all thy sins, transgressions and excesses, how 
enormous soever they may be, even from such as are 
reserved for the cognizance of the holy See, and as 
far as the keys of the holy Church extend. I re- 
mit to you all punishment, which you deserve in pur- 
gatory on their account ; and I restore you to the 
holy sacraments of the Church, to the unity of the 
faithful, and to that innocence and purity which you 
possessed at baptism ; so that when you die, the gates 
of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of para- 
dise shall be opened ; and if you shall not die at 
present, this grace shall remain in full force when 



384 PREDICTIONS 

you are at the point of death ; in the name of the 
Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." 

[V. 2. And she being with child cried, travailing 
in birth, and pained to be delivered] — This verse re- 
presents the woman as being fruitful, and glorifying 
God in bringing forth many spiritual sons ; for 
" Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much 
fruit : I am the vine and ye are the branches ; he 
that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth 
forth much fruit ; for without me ye can do nothing :" 
i. e. u If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide 
in my love ; even as I have kept my Father's com- 
mandments, and abide in his love." — John xv. 

[V. 3. And there appeared another wonder in 
heaven] — It was matter of great wonder that any- 
thing should disturb the Church, when she was thus 
living to bring forth fruit unto holiness, that her end 
might be everlasting life. But it happens according 
to the words of the apostle : " They that will live 
godly in Christ (and Christ in them) shall suffer per- 
secution." " If a man observe the precepts, and is 
a son of the law, and lives a holy life, then Satan 
stands and accuses him." 

[And behold ! a great reel dragon, having seven 
heads, and ten horn, and seven crowns upon his 
heads] — This was the first seducer, persecutor, and 
destroyer of the Church of Christ. This red dragon 
was the ensign of the great city, corporation or gov- 
ernment, which, we have clearly shown, is none other 



OF THE PROPHETS. 385 

than the old Roman government ; and this we have 
proved to be so by a history of his character, laws, 
and actions ; or the expression of his sentiments, as 
set forth by his officers and general councils. But I 
will make one more quotation, which, with what I 
have said, will certainly satisfy the most incredulous. 

" The heathen Roman empire is called a red dragon ; 
and, accordingly, we find from the testimony of an- 
cient writers, that the dragon standards of the Ro- 
mans were painted red. Piticus, in his Lexicon of 
Roman Antiquities, and Ducange, in his Latin Glos- 
sary, under the word dragon, have considered this 
subject at great length, especially the latter writer, 
who has made several quotations from Claudianus, 
Sidonius, Prudentius, and others, in which not only 
the standard, but also the image of the dragon itself, 
is stated to be of a red or purple color. Of what has 
been said above respecting the dragon, this, then, is 
the sum : A huge fabulous beast is shown to St. 
John, by which some great pagan power is meta- 
phorically represented : and the red dragon is selected 
from among the numerous imaginary animals which 
the fancies of mankind have created, to show this 
great pagan power is the heathen Roman empire." — 
Bishop Neivton. 

We have already shown, from ecclesiastical history, 
that under Constajitine, State and Church union took 
place ; and the emperor and his successors were su- 
preme in Church and State, assuming pontifical as 



386 PREDICTIONS 

well as regal dignity. And this state of things has 
been continued in the states of the Church, the an- 
cient and modern seat of the beast, from the days of 
Constantine down to the present time. 

[Having seven heads] — The dragon which the pro- 
phet saw had seven heads, and these heads have been 
variously interpreted by Biblical critics, to whom the 
reader is referred. I saw an ancient silver coin, 
which had been excavated from the ruins of Pompeii, 
in Italy, which was coined in the reign of Fainmilius, 
one of the seven kings of Rome (for it is worthy of 
remark that the first form of the Roman government 
was the regal) ; on one side of this coin was the re- 
presentation of a huge serpent, the Dragon, which 
had seven distinct heads. This, then, was the fabu- 
lous animal which was painted red upon their en- 
signs. 

This coin bore a date which gave evidence that it 
had been coined 2514 years ago, which would bring 
us back into the days of the seven kings who first 
ruled Rome; the aggregate period of their reigns 
equaled two hundred and forty years, from the 
founding of Rome by the twin brothers, Remus and 
Romulus. 

It is stated in ancient mythology, that Minerva 
sprung full-grown from the head of Jupiter. And 
there is evidently some great mythological fact hie- 
roglyphically represented by this seven-headed drag- 
on, designing to teach mankind that the Roman 



OF THE PROPHETS. 387 

kingdom, which arose from one head, had seven 
heads, or families. 

The serpent was the emblem of wisdom ; u for the 
serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field." 
So, Japheth, from which comes- Jupiter, was the eld- 
est and the wisest of his brethren ; and time has 
proved the same to be true of his descendants. And 
it is worthy of remark, that Japheth had just seven 
sons, which are thus allegorically represented like 
Minerva, as springing from the head of Jupiter, 
which gives Japheth, who is represented by the ser- 
pent or dragon, just seven heads. 

[And ten horns] — Which are the emblems of honor 
and power, as the heads are of wisdom. It is also 
worthy of note, that five of Japheth' s sons must have 
died, leaving no posterity ; as there is no mention 
made of but two of them having sons, and they had 
just seven. Thus Japheth and his two sons, and 
their seven sons, grandsons of Japheth, made just 
ten horns, or emblems of honor and power, as be- 
longing to the great Japhetic famity, from which 
arose the old Pagan Roman government. 

Now, it was by these, and these alone, that the 
country of Europe was divided and peopled after 
their families. So that in the very earliest ages after 
the flood, or universal deluge, Europe was divided 
into ten powers or kingdoms, which divisions have 
been maintained, as we have already shown in notes 
on the eleventh chapter, in regard to the overthrow 



388 PREDICTIONS 

of a tenth of the city. The descendants of Japheth, 
then, adopted these emblems, and placed them upon 
their ensigns at the founding of Rome ; and it was 
a very just emblem too; for we are told, that Rome 
was first inhabited by people from all the surround- 
ing Japhetic nations. 

[And having seven crowns upon his head] — 
Crowns here are evidently used by metonymy for 
kings who wear crowns. And this interpretation, 
and this only, makes the Revelation consistent, and 
its truth convincing; for as we have already shown, 
Rome had only seven kings, or crowned heads; and 
these were her first or head rulers ; and there is no 
other kingdom or empire on earth, to which all this 
is applicable ; and therefore this is Pagan Rome. 

[V. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the 
stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth ; and 
the dragon stood before the woman which was ready 
to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it 
was born] — This verse reveals to us that the tail of 
this dragon insinuated itself around a third part of 
the stars of heaven, or ministers of the Church, and 
drew them to its service ; and did cast them down 
from their high, brilliant and heavenly positions, 
unto the earth, to the low, dark and groveling ser- 
vice of the world, the flesh and the devil ; as their 
subsequent history fully proves. 

The number of Christians which united with this 
great city, or red dragon power, was not more than 



OF THE PROPHETS. 389 

one third of the ministers who claimed to belong to 
Christ. 

It is true, beyond a doubt, that this was the num- 
ber, because it is so stated by infallible inspiration. 
And, aside from divine testimony, it looks reasonable 
that this was about the number; for a great number 
formed the Eastern, Byzantine, or Greek Church ; 
and great numbers in the West, in various parts of 
the Roman empire, refused to unite the Gospel and 
Dragon system of religion, or to put heaven to open 
shame by uniting Christ with Belial. 

It should be remembered that it is not the purpose 
of the Prophet to reveal events, in this chapter, in 
their regular chronological order, as belonging to the 
seventh trumpet period; but to recapitulate great 
events from A. D. 1 to 2940, and place before us two 
great signs, or, as we translate them, wonders — the 
woman clothed with the sun, and a great RED dragon. 
These are designed to be the infallible signs by which 
men are to know or distinguish who compose the 
holy city, and who constitute the great city. The 
tail, symbolizes the end — the last end. So it was 
in the end, or last end, of the Roman Pagan govern- 
ment, that all these events transpired. 

Now, from the facts before us, we shall better un- 
derstand the last clause of the verse ; the red 
dragon or Pagan Roman government stood ready, 
in the day of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, to de- 
vour or destroy him, which occurred in the day 



890 PREDICTIONS 

Herod, when he issued an edict (Matthew, chap ii), 
to destroy all the male children from two years old 
and under : for it will be remembered that the kino-- 

o 

dom of Herod was a province of imperial Pagan 
Rome. 

[Y. 5. And she brought forth a man child, who 
was to rule all nations with a rod of iron ; and her 
child was caught up unto God, and to his throne] — 
This verse reveals to us that the woman had brought 
forth a man child, of the blessed Virgin Mary, the 
Son of Man — Imvianuel — God-Man ; and he was 
about to rule ail nations with justice, mercy and 
equity ; and would have continued then and become 
the personal potentate of universal empire, if the 
world had not practically said: " We will not have 
this man rule over us." Therefore, being rejected 
of men, he ascended up, far above all the visible 
heavens, unto his Father's throne, and to the glory 
which he possessed before the worlds were created; 
where he will remain as our mediator until he returns 
to the executive judgment, and assumes universal 
empire and everlasting dominion over the world. 

[V. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, 
where she hath a place prepared of God, that they 
should feed her there a thousand two hundred and 
threescore days] — The woman fled into the wilder- 
ness, as did Hagar, Sarah's maid-servant. She went 
in haste, to escape, or attempt to escape from danger 
or expected evil, and kept herself at a distance from 



OF THE PROPHETS. 391 

the great city; and she took up her abode in dens 
and caves of the mountains — places specially pre- 
pared of God, instead of the ordinary habitations of 
men; and her persecutors feci her there with the 
bread of affliction ; gave her to drink the bitter 
waters of sorrow, and sorely scourged her with the 
rod of oppression. 

And this state of things was to continue a thou- 
sand two hundred and threescore days — which is 
twelve hundred and sixty common years. The 
woman and the holy city are synonymous ; and 
hence, we are taught that the woman was in the wil- 
derness precisely the same length of time that the 
holy city was trodden town. The woman then fled 
into the wilderness this time, the first time, in A. D. 
303. Here her flight commenced ; and in about 
sixty years she was completely hidden and sheltered 
in the wilderness; and here she continued until the 
time of the Reformation, when, in 1563, the great 
separation between Protestants and Papists took 
place ; then her first sojourn of twelve hundred and 
sixty years in the wilderness ended; and she began 
to rise out of her state of oppression and obscurity, 
the wilderness ; which was fully effected by the year 
1620. 

[V. 7. And there was war in heaven : Michael and 
his angels fought against the dragon ; and the dragon 
fought and his angels] — The war, mentioned in this 
verse as being in heaven, is to be understood as being 



392 PREDICTIONS 

among those who claim to be a part of the family of 
heaven — among Protestant Christians — all claiming 
to belong to the same heavenly family. 

Michael represents the chief prince of God's 
people ; the Dragon, the power of the Roman em- 
pire, or chief prince of this world. This war was 
both physical and spiritual between these two — it 
was both a war of words and a war of swords — a 
practical warfare, from the time of Church and State 
union under Constantine, up to the annunciation of 
the decisions of the Council of Trent. It was the 
war of the two principles, right and wrong. Right 
was maintained by Michael, and wrong by the 
Dragon, in his crusades and general councils. 

TAnd their angels fought] — The ministers of 
Christ and the ministers of Satan often engaged in 
a war of words, in those days, and their holy or un- 
holy trumpets were sounded long and loud. This 
was but the beginning of the end, which was com- 
menced in the war of the Crusades and consummated 
in the bloody Inquisition and massacre on St. Bar- 
tholomew's day, when tens of thousands of Protest- 
ant Christians perished ! Sin, however, wounded in 
the conflict between Right and Wrong, writhes and 
dies a dreadful death, amid her watchful friends ; 
while Truth, though trodden down to earth so long, 
begins to rise again; and she shall arise triumphant 
over all the gates of hell, for the eternal power, wis- 
dom and glory of 'God are hers. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 393 

[V. 8. And prevailed not ; neither was their place 
found any more in heaven] — For the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against the woman clothed with the 
sun — the bride, the Lamb's wife ; for the Lord God 
is her sun, to enlighten, comfort and sustain her by 
his almighty arm ; and a shield to defend her from 
all her enemies ; and if they repent not to fully 
avenge her ; and will give her all-sufficient grace 
here, and a crown of glory in heaven. 

Reader, art thou a child of this woman — a child 
of God — and are you trying to be a faithful member 
of the Church — an humble Christian ? The time has 
come when no others are entitled to a place in the 
Church of Christ, the holy city ; neither will there 
be found an acceptable place, any more, for any other 
in the Church on earth or in heaven. 

[V. 9. And the great dragon was cast out, that, 
old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which cle- 
ceiveth the whole world : he was cast out into the 
earth, and his angels were cast out with him] — And 
the great dragon, that old serpent -called the devil 
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, was cast 
out when the red dragon was overcome and rejected, 
through whom Satan wrought lying wonders, to de- 
ceive all the world. The red dragon was overcome 
and cast out at the time of the Reformation, as a 
counterfeit Church, as a mere Corporation through 
which Satan carried on his work of destruction to 
the bodies and souls of men. These two dragons 



394 PREDICTIONS 

sustained the relation of cause and effect to each 
other; and the red dragon did the work, maintained 
the principles and carried on the system of rebellion 
against the divine government, which the great 
dragon constantly suggested to men of corrupt 
minds; and in this way seducing spirits were sent 
forth to promulgate the doctrines of the devil, and 
deceive the whole world. 

But at the time of the Reformation, the dragon 
and his system of forged decretals, and his angels 
or ministers were all rejected, and cast out as not 
only useless, but ruinous. The highest honor that 
can be awarded him, is, that his whole system has 
no more worth than a base, earthly, political cor- 
poration; having Satan for its author, ruinous error 
for its laws, and the destruction of mankind for its 
object; and therefore he was cast out into the earth, 
and his angels were cast out with him, as men would 
cast out salt which had lost its savor ; or, as they 
would cast a serpent and her brood from their 
midst. 

" A Corporation which arrogates to itself so ex- 
clusively the favor of God; which regards all Pro- 
testants as pagans ; which, for the crime of rejecting 
its claims, disfranchises them, and has shed the blood 
of millions — ought at least to have some peculiar and 
pre-eminent merits of its own. It ought, in theory, 
to tend to good ; and, after a trial of more than ten 
centuries, it ought to have left evidence of the real- 



OF TUB PROPHETS. 395 

ity and power of that tendency in the records of 
history." 

As this Corporation is constantly thrusting itself 
on the attention of this nation as the only hope of 
humanity, and avows its purpose as soon as it has 
power, to expel and to exterminate Protestantism, 
it will not be tolerated if we subject it to a rigid and 
thorough scrutiny by the light of the holy Scrip- 
tures, and the truth of history. 

The principles of such a scrutiny are simple and 
obvious. We are to consider, not the pretenses o£ 
its partisans, but its internal structure, its mode of 
operation, its tendencies and its results. 

To prevent all misunderstanding, however, it is 
necessary at this point to remark that we are to view 
the system of Romanism in reference to those things 
which, it has in distinction from and in opposition to 
Protestantism, laying out of the account any doc- 
trines that it has in common with Protestantism. 

If we examine carefully the system of Romanism, 
in its theory and in its practice, we shall discover a 
curious triple combination, composed of a religion, 
a trading Corporation and a government. 

The great idea of the Corporation as a religious 
body is, that it has an absolute and exclusive author- 
ity to confer the grace of God, as displayed in the 
pardon of sin and the gift of eternal life. This 
grace it dispenses through certain agents, who alone 
are empowered to confer it, and whose grace alone 



396 PREDICTIONS 

is genuine. All other pretended grace is spurious 
and counterfeit. 

Again : this grace is communicated through various 
forms or processes, called sacraments, and through 
the profession of a certain creed, and through con- 
fession to one of their agents, called a priest, who 
has full power from Grod, through them, to forgive 
sins, and to impose penances as the condition of 
grace. 

This grace reaches, not merely to this life, but to 
an indefinite period beyond this life, in which the 
so ill is neither in heaven nor in hell, but somewhere 
between, in a place of torment called purgatory. 
Beside the common grace of God, this Corporation 
has laid up an inexhaustible store of the merits of 
all saints beyond what was Deeded for their own sal- 
vation ; and of these merits, also, they have the en- 
tire monopoly. Thus, by masses, and the applica- 
tion of these merits, and by prayers for the dead, 
they can deliver souls from purgatory; and for a 
reasonable compensation they are always ready to 
do it. This gives them great power at sick beds, 
and over the wills of dying men and women, and 
over the purses of living relatives and friends. They 
have, also, various other sources of profit from the 
living, in the form of indulgences for sin : scapular- 
ies, as defenses against all evils ; masses of every 
variety and for every purpose; dispensations from 
fasts; removals of impediments to marriage ; miracu- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 397 

lous medals; various defenses against the devil; 
grace through the images or relics of patron saints, 
especially on their annual festivals ; and numerous 
other similar devices. 

One recent instance will cast light on this matter. 
The celebrated prelate, Arnold of Treves, and his 
priests, are said to have received one hundred thou- 
sand dollars in six months from offerings made in 
order to obtain a portion of the grace stored up in 
the holy coat. The total value of this particular 
adventure is estimated at three hundred thousand 
dollars. 

Here, then, opens upon us the view of an immense 
commerce carried on for ages, the statistics of which 
have never yet been reported. But it is well known 
that at the time of the Reformation, this Corpora- 
tion and their agents had gained possession of half, 
and sometimes of three quarters, of the property of 
the various states of Europe. Hence, in prophecy 
its downfall is represented under the symbol of the 
ruin of an immense commercial city. 

Viewing this Corporation as a government, the 
aspect of things is no less impressive. The head of 
the Corporation is both a spiritual and a temporal 
ruler. He claims to be monarch of all monarchs. 
His senate of cardinals and electors are princes. 
His bishops also are lords each in his diocese, but 
are still his vassals, bound to him by a feudal oath. 
To him also are bound the rulers of the Jesuits and 
34 



398 PREDICTIONS 

of the various orders of monks and nuns, who are an 
all-pervading soldiery, sworn to do his will. To the 
bishops also are subjected the secular priests, and to 
them are subjected the people. Thus the whole sys- 
tem is one compact and an all-pervading govern- 
ment, the rule of which is absolute obedience to the 
central power and its agents in regular subordina- 
tion. It is an immense army under military discip- 
line. 

Let us now study the operation of this Corpora- 
tion on the mind. And, first of all, it is evident 
that in religious matters it puts itself in God's place. 
God could, no doubt, if he pleased, reveal himself 
and impart grace to individuals out of this Corpora- 
tion ; but they say he will not. He has determined 
not to act except through this visible Corporation. 
No one, as they claim, can have anything to do with 
him but through them. 

Again : as they are infallible, so they aim, as far 
as possible, to be omniscient and omnipresent. 
This they effect by their agents who hear confes- 
sions. To them every act, motive, feeling, thought 
and plan must be disclosed, or no pardon of sins 
can be obtained ; for they can not judge of sins un- 
less they know all the circumstances of alleviation 
or aggravation. 

It comes to this, then, in practice, that to each 
one his or her priest is as God, and hears confessions 
und absolves as God; and so their councils and 



OF THE PROPHETS. 899 

doctors teach. Each priest, then, is virtually an 
extension of the great divine, infallible, central 
Corporation. Thus the great central Corporation 
branches out into agencies and sub-agencies all 
over the world, through which it teaches, governs and 
trades. 

We now come to a grand peculiarity of the sys- 
tem, upon which its working power entirely depends. 
To the masses it materializes and perverts all ideas 
of heaven and hell ; it gives false and fanatical con- 
ceptions of God as regarding this Corporation more 
than real and genuine holiness ; it fills the mind with 
superstitious fears, and then concentrates all these 
forces, from the first dawn of reason to break down 
all energy or courage to think or to reason from the 
Bible or from any other source against their author- 
ity or decisions. Even to doubt is heresy ; it is in- 
fidelity. It thus aims by the whole power of educa- 
tion thoroughly to cut the sinews of reason and of 
reasoning, and to establish a habit of blind and im- 
plicit belief. In this they have most incredible suc- 
cess. 

Arbitrary and fanatical terrors are multiplied. 
They penetrate the youthful mind and freeze it with 
horror at the thought of doubting the word of a Cor- 
poration outside of which he has consigned all to 
perdition. From the effects of such training few 
ever recover. 

First, then, it tends to make heresy the greatest 



400 PREDICTIONS 

of all crimes, and especially the heresy of doubting 
or denying the divine authority and the infallibility 
of the Corporation. 

" So, indeed, those who have been brought up 
thoroughly to believe the system have always looked 
at the matter. Believing this Corporation to be a 
true theocracy, involving all the interests of God 
and of man on earth, rebellion against it, and efforts 
to destroy its authority, they have regarded as the 
greatest of crimes. Hence we can understand why, 
though the Spaniards pity other criminals when ex- 
ecuted, they exult and manifest peculiar joy at the 
burning of heretics ; which is well known to be the 
fact. Hence, also, the religious services on the oc- 
casion of the massacre of St. Bartholomew were no 
more than the logical results of the system." 

On this ground Mr. Brownson denies that the Ro- 
mish church ever has persecuted : she has but exer- 
cised just authority in punishing those who are 
guilty of treason. 

But, again : it follows that if in fact this Corpora- 
tion has no basis in the Bible, nor in history, but is 
founded on imposture and forgery, it of course must 
create in the managers of the Corporation a peculiar 
and an intense hatred of the Bible and of history. 

It is natural that the inhabitants of an immense 
palace should regard with terror and indignation all 
efforts to cast fire into it and consume it. Yet the 
Bible and history are merely the fire of God. Let 



OF THE PROPHETS. 401 

them be fully developed, and this whole fabric is con- 
sumed. Of course, the most intense energies of this 
whole mighty Corporation will be put forth to avert 
these results. 

The doctrine of pious frauds, at its first develop- 
ment, was feeble and its aspect plausible ; but out 
of it grew the whole Papal system. And now, at 
last, all kinds of fraud, pious and impious, are needed 
in its defense, and must be, and will be, employed 
with the most intense energy. We need not wonder 
that the system sanctions them. It could not exist 
a day without them. 

Once more : this system is, of necessity, one 1m 
mense conspiracy, designed to destroy the very roots 
of all intellectual, civil, and religious liberty. This 
is essential in order to sustain it. This is involved 
n the decision of the Church, " that he who only 
doubts concerning the faith is to be reputed an infi- 
del." This maxim, applied from the first develop- 
ment of the intellectual powers of a child, and by 
every process of parental, priestly, and ecclesiastical 
influence, and by every terror that superstition can 
summon up, paralyzes and cripples the minds of 
thoroughly educated Romanists to an extent of which 
it is hard to conceive. This principle pervades the 
system with intense power, and especially all Romish 
educational processes. A habit of free and inde- 
pendent thought is fatal to their Church. Hence, 
the hatred of the ecclesiastics of Rome against our 



402 PREDICTIONS 

system of free schools, our histories, and our Bibles. 
If she would maintain herself she must have a sys- 
tem of education entirely under her control, so that 
she may still, as heretofore, cripple and paralyze the 
mind from its first to its last educational processes. 
This is what she means to have ; and it is what our 
States now in rebellion meant to have : and here the 
Southern Confederacy is the Image of the Beast that 
had the wound by a sword and did live. 

How can a community thus educated be free ? 
Can any outward forms of government give freedom 
to a nation the minds of whose children are thus 
paralyzed and crippled from the dawn of life ? 

" Once more : the immense extortions of the sys- 
tem, as well as its system of holidays, absorbing in 
idleness a large portion of the time of the laboring 
classes, have tended in all ages, and still tend, to im- 
poverish the nations over which it holds sway. It 
is notorious that kings and people in the most Cath- 
olic ages have groaned most bitterly by reason of its 
various extortions, and have been by them at last 
aroused to resistance. Such feelings, indeed, in part, 
caused the Reformation. Hence, the miserable con- 
dition of Italy, and especially of the population of 
the papal States." 

The historian Macaulay is disposed, even to an 
excess, to give all the credit that he can to Rome be- 
fore the Reformation. His judgment, therefore, is 
the more impartial as to what she is now. Speak- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 403 

ing of the time since the Reformation, this eminent 
historian says : 

" To stunt the growth of the human mind has been 
her chief object. Throughout Christendom, what- 
ever advance has been made in knowledge, in free- 
dom, in wealth, and in the arts of life, has been made 
in spite of her, and has everywhere been in inverse 
proportion to her power. The loveliest and most 
fertile provinces of Europe have, under her rule, 
been sunk into poverty, in political servitude, and 
in intellectual torpor ; while Protestant countries, 
once proverbial for sterility and barbarism, have 
been turned, by skill and industry, into gardens, and 
can boast of a long list of heroes and statesmen, phi- 
losophers, and poets. Whoever, knowing what Italy 
and Scotland naturally are, and what, four hundred 
years ago, they actually were, shall now compare the 
country round Rome with the country round Edin- 
burgh, will be able to form some judgment as to the 
tendency of papal domination. The descent of Spain, 
once the first among monarchies^ to the lowest depths 
of degradation, the elevation of Holland, in spite of 
many natural disadvantages, to a position such as no 
commonwealth so small has ever reached, teach the 
same lesson. Whoever passes, in Germany, from a 
Roman Catholic to a Protestant principality, in 
Switzerland from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant 
canton, in Ireland from a Roman Catholic to a Prot- 
estant county, finds that he has passed from a lower 



404 PREDICTIONS 

to a higher grade of civilization. On the other side 
of the Atlantic the same law prevails. The Protest- 
ants of the United States have left far behind them 
the Roman Catholics of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. 
The Roman Catholics of Lower Canada remain in- 
ert ; while the whole continent round them is in a 
ferment with Protestant activity and enterprise." 

[Y. 10. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 
Now is come salvation, and strength, and the king- 
dom of our God, and the power of his Christ : for 
the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which ac- 
cused them before our God day and night] — This is 
the voice of exultation heard from those humble, 
faithful, joyful friends of Christ, of whom it may be 
said, " Of such are the kingdom of heaven,'' who ex- 
ulted at the Reformation in the triumph of truth 
over error : of right over wrong, and of the Saviour 
over Satan: Saying, now is come salvation — deliv- 
erance from the temporal and spiritual evils imposed 
by Rome the great city, and now, through the teach- 
ing of the pure Gospel, is offered the true means of 
salvation from sin here, and deliverance hereafter 
from all the consequences of sin. And strength, 
temporal and spiritual, are accessible; for men are 
now directed to look at once to God from whom all 
our help cometh ; and not to the saints or priests ; 
and depend with all confidence that the grace of God 
in Christ alone, is all-sufficient without priestly or 
saintlv intercession. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 405 

And the kingdom of our God, is now again set up 
and established ; and through the Gospel, which 
contains the laws of the heavenly kingdom, is now 
opened up a new and living way, by which every 
soul of man may come to God by Jesus Christ, the 
great High Priest, without any other intercessors. 
And this kingdom has come not merely in word and 
outward ordinances, but it has come in power, and 
much assurance in the Holy Ghost ; for it is the 
power of God, and the power of his Christ, unto sal- 
vation to every one that belie veth, to the Jew first, 
and also to the Greek. The reason, and only rea- 
son, why we enjoy all this more than in former days, 
is, because the accuser of our brethren, the papal 
Corporation, is cast down, which accused them be- 
fore our God day and night. This Rome did by her 
clergy, general councils, and the Inquisition: and 
hereby the red dragon— Rome, evinced that she was 
actuated by the old dragon, who employed the red 
dragon as the agent through whom to accomplish all 
his ruinous purposes. 

By their fruits or works ye shall know them; 
therefore, judging the great city, the Roman Corpor- 
ation by this rule, it was the medium through which 
the great dragon carried on his work of destruction, 
for a thousand two hundred and three score days, 
while the woman was in the widerness the first time, 
from 303 to 1563. 

But at the Reformation the two witnesses were 
* 35 



406 PREDICTIONS 

raised from their death of silence, and bore testimony 
against the corruptions in practice, errors in doctrine, 
and unrighteousness in the government of the great 
city ; and the woman came forth from the wilderness, 
saying, "Now is come salvation, and strength, and 
the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ : 
for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which 
accused them before our God day and night." 

[V. 11. And they overcame him by the blood of 
the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony: and 
they loved not their lives unto death] — The woman, 
clothed with the sun, overcame the great dragon by 
the blood of the Lamb, the blood of the New Testa- 
ment, which was shed for the redemption of the 
world. Blood is used metaphorically for life and 
power, for it was through the Gospel, the word of 
Gocl, which is also called life and spirit ; for it is 
God's appointed means of spiritual life and power ; 
and by this weapon of heavenly warfare, wielded by 
the Holy Spirit, the woman conquered ; and the seed 
of the woman, the ^Yord of God, bruised the serpent's 
head. And the word of their testimony, which the 
two witnesses gave against the great dragon, the red 
dragon, the Roman Corporation, caused him to be 
cast out into the earth as a thing only fit to be trod- 
den under foot ; and these faithful witnesses for the 
truth, endangered their lives everywhere in bearing 
their testimony; and they loved not their life at the 
day of death, as they did Christ; nay, verily, tney 



OF THE PROPHETS. 407 

counted not their lives worth anything to them, if 
by a sacrifice of them, they might win the world to 
Christ. 

[V. 12. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye 
that dwell in them. Wo to the inhabiters of the 
earth and of the sea ! for the devil is come down 
unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth 
that he hath but a short time] — Ye abodes of the 
blessed, rejoice! ye morning stars, sing for joy, and 
shout aloud all ye sons of God, the praises of the 
Most High ! and ye that are made to sit and dwell 
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, rejoice, 
and again rejoice; for the Captain of our salvation 
hath triumphed gloriously over the great red dragon, 
and his rider! This was the rejoicing of the woman 
when she first came out of the wilderness ; but her 
time of triumph was brief; she soon goes into the 
wilderness the second time, to continue as long as at 
the first period. Here the twelfth chapter should 
end with this hymn of rejoicing. 

[Wo to the inhabiters of the earth and sea] — By 
the inhabiters of the earth and sea, we understand 
the members of State and Church union governments 
are represented; and by the wo to them, we learn 
the dreadful calamity which came upon the whole 
commonwealth, or upon the Protestants of the whole 
corporation, over which Rome had control, directly 
after the Reformation, and especially from the great 
massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, .A D. 1572, to 



408 PREDICTIONS 

the Edict of Nantz, 1598, a short time of -26 years ; 
therefore it is said, the devil is come down unto you 
having great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but 
a short to inflict his calamities upon the woman; and 
the devil used his utmost power by the Great Red 
Dragon immediately after the Council of Trent, to 
destroy the last vestige of the Protestant Church. 

[V. 13. And when the dragon saw that he was 
cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which 
brought forth the man-child] — And the Red Dragon, 
when he saw that he was cast unto the earth ; where 
he was only considered an earthly, sensual, and dev- 
ilish corporation ; first suggested and composed by 
the Great Dragon, that old serpent that deceived 
Eve, and but for Christ, utterly ruined our race, 
persecuted the woman, which brought forth the man 
child, Jesus Christ, who was to rule all nations by 
his law and Gospel, and finally to break in pieces, as 
a potter's vessel, whatever opposed the progress of 
his kingdom. 

We submit a few facts, to give the reader a some- 
what satisfactory idea of the manner in which the 
Great Dragon, through the Red Dragon, persecuted 
the woman, or Protestant Christians, not only in- 
deed as on St. Bartholomew's day, but also by word, 
in his lying and slanderous statements against Pro- 
testant Christians. 

" The unity and antiquity of Romanism, have, by 
its partisans, been often contrasted with the diversity 



OF THE PROPHETS. 409 

and novelty of Protestantism. These topics supply 
the votary of papal superstition with fond occasions 
of exultation, triumph, and bravado. Romanism, 
according to its friends, is unchangeable as truth, 
and old as Christianity. Protestantism, according 
to its enemies, is fluctuating as falsehood, and mod- 
ern as the Reformation. But this discordancy, it 
will be found, is the offspring of misrepresentation. 
The Reformers, in their doctrinal sentiments, exhib- 
ited a wonderful agreement. Their unanimity, in- 
deed, was amazing; and showed that these distin- 
guished theologians, renouncing the vain command- 
ments of men, and the muddy streams of tradition, 
had all imbibed the same spirit, and drunk from the 
aa me fountain. 

The doctrinal unity of the Reformed appears from 
their Confessions of Faith. These were published 
at the commencement of the reformation; and all, 
in different phraseology, contain, in the main, the 
same truths. Twelve of these public expositions of 
belief were issued in the several European nations. 
These were the Augsburg, Tetrapolitan, Polish, 
Saxon, Bohemian, Wittenberg, Palatine, Helvetian, 
French, Dutch, English, and Scottish confessions. 
All these are printed, in Latin, in Chouet's Col- 
lection; and have been abridged and criticised by 
Sleidan, Secendorf, Brandt, Bossuet, Maimbourg, Mo- 
reri, and Du Pin, according to their diversified pre- 
possessions and designs." See a The voice of the 



410 PREDICTIONS 

prophets," for a full and interesting account of pro- 
testant confessions of Faith. 

[V. 14. And to the woman were given two wings 
of a great eagle, that she might flee into the wilder- 
ness, into her place, where she is nourished for a 
time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the 
serpent] — The prophecy of this verse reveals a new 
era in the history of the woman. Here the seventh 
trumpet period begins to end in 1620, and is com- 
pleted by 1680. — But as the prophet is revealing 
great events, including periods of great length, mi- 
nor periods are not mentioned. To the woman were 
given two wings of a great eagle. The two wings 
metaphorically represent the means of power and 
motion by which the woman could escape over sea 
and land from apprehended danger ; and these were 
given to her that she might fly into the wilderness y 
which had been hid for ages, behind the vail of west- 
ern waters, and had been brought to view by the 
providence of God, in A. D. 1492, just at the dawn 
of the Reformation ; and had not only been provi 
dentially discovered just at this juncture, but it had 
been equally as carefully kept for an asylum for the 
woman, so that she might become the first settler of 
it, and own it as her place by pre-emption. 

During this (seventh trumpet) period, the face of 
the Christian world was changed. The thick dark- 
ness, which had overspread it, had begun to be dis- 
pelled by the revival of literature and philosophy ; 



OF THE PROPHETS. 411 

but at the glorious era of the Reformation the light 
of moral and religious truth shone forth with renewed 
splendor, and produced the most important results to 
the religious, literary and political interests of man- 
kind. Christianity, however, was not extensively 
propagated during this period, among distant nations 
The attention of the European world was too much 
absorbed in the disputes which were carried on be- 
tween the Reformists and Papists, to embark in so 
godlike an enterprise. 

Here, in her new wilderness-home, the woman finds 
herself secure from her foes, and she is nourished 
with the bread of heaven and the waters of life, and 
her children with the sincere milk of Gospel truth ; 
and they grow thereby to the perfect stature of men 
in Christ. But after all, she is in the wilderness ; 
for the whole land, in a strict moral sense, is uncul- 
tivated, disorderly, unfenced, and overgrown with 
thorns, briers and thistles ; and is nigh unto cursing, 
in 1860, and is cursed in 1864. 

And this state of things is to continue for a time, 
times, and half a time, which period is equal to three 
times and a half time, or seven half times. Each 
half time is equal to 180 years. Then 180x7="1260 
years. This period dates at the time of the woman's 
flight, on account of persecution, and first permanent 
settlement in this new world, the woman's wilder- 
ness, which occurred in the year 1620 to 1680. 
Therefore, the woman has to live here in a wilder- 



412 PREDICTIONS 

ness state 1260 years from the time the pilgrims 
landed at Plymouth Rock, which will carry us down 
to A. D. 2880 to 2940. At the time of the end of 
this period, the woman will come out of the wilder- 
ness the second and last time; and in this period, as 
I shall yet show, Daniel's 2300 days end, and the 
sanctuary is to be cleansed. So, the cleansing of the 
sanctuary and the woman's second sojourn in the 
wilderness, end at the same time. This signifies the 
cleansing of the sactuary from all errors in doctrine ; 
from all idols and filthiness in practice, and from all 
unrighteousness in government. These events will 
both occur in the same year, from 2880 to 2940. 

We have already seen the events which befell the 
woman during her first sojourn in the wilderness of . 
Europe. But now we bid farewell to the old wilder- 
ness, and follow the woman to America, and we shall 
see what befalls her foes, as well as what she does in 
her new wilderness-home, where she is to dwell ; for 
it is her place, and will be forever, for she is the 
Bride of the Prince of Peace, whose kingdom is an 
everlasting kingdom, and of whose dominion there 
shall be no end. 

[V. 15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth 
water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause 
her to be carried away of the flood] — Yv T e have already 
shown that the serpent represented the government 
of Rome — pagan at first ; but since the days of ec- 
clesiastical and political union, it represents both; 



OF THE PROPHETS. 413 

and this serpent cast out waters, which metaphori- 
cally represent people. The first Christians which 
fled to the new world on account of religious perse- 
cutions were about one thousand, Huguenots from 
France, who settled at St. Augustine, in Florida, in 
1 563. The old Serpent, however, sent out a fleet of 
Spaniards in a few years, and exterminated them, 
not as robbers, pirates, or murderers, but as heretics ; 
which meant then, among Roman Catholics, what it 
does now, one who claims the right of conscience to 
read, believe, and obey the holy Scriptures as he un- 
derstands them ; instead of submitting implicitly to 
the dictates of the Romish clergy. 

The first event, however, that disturbs the woman 
after her permanent settlement in her wilderness- 
home, was the French and Indian wars, instigated 
by the old Serpent. These were but the beginning 
of her conflicts ; for " the Serpent cast out of his 
mouth waters, as a flood after the woman, that he 
might cause her to be carried away of the flood ;" 
signifying that rulers or governments instigated by 
Satan, should issue orders that armies should be 
poured out as a flood after the woman, not to protect 
and assist her in the wilderness, but to cause her to 
give up her trust in God, or they would utterly de- 
stroy her, as a desolating flood drowns and carries 
away all before it. 

And this was more especially true, during the 
seven years' war in this country, known as the Revo- 



414 PREDICTIONS 

lutionary War, from 1776 to 1783. This was the 
most distressing conflict recorded in modern warfare; 
for it was both a foreign and civil war of the most 
annoying character. But, by the providence of God, 
the woman maintained her wilderness-home, for her 
infant children, and gained the victory over her ene- 
mies, after she had bravely fought seven times seven 
bloody battles, on sea and land. And it is evident 
from prophecy she will be victorious in this war. 

[V. 16. And the earth helped the woman, and the 
earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood 
which the dragon cast out of his mouth] — And the 
earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood 
which the Dragon cast out of his mouth ; signifying 
that the political government in the wilderness, which 
is symbolized by the earth (because all political gov- 
ernments are of the earth, earthy), would help the 
woman to conquer her enemies ; that God would, in 
the defense of his righteous counsels, cause the sword 
to devour much flesh ; that an opposing power would 
destroy the armies of the Dragon, and is now destroy- 
ing the armies of the Image to the Dragon, which he 
had poured out like an overwhelming flood into the 
land of the woman. How true. Thousands on 
thousands of the woman's enemies perished by hard- 
ships, diseases, and bloody wars, and thus the earth — 
the grave — opened her mouth and swallowed up the 
flood ; and they are left to sleep in their graces, all 
unneeded and unheeding the vast changes in human 



OF THE PROPHETS. 415 

affairs; the downfall of dynasties; the subversion of 
kingdoms ; and the revolution of empires ' 

And thus ended, in 1783, the woman's first great 
conflict in the new wilderness, in her mighty contest 
for Truth, Right and Liberty. And here ended the 
period of twelve hundred and sixty years in which 
St. John's seven-headed and ten-horned beafet ex- 
isted ; which is only another name for the great Red 
Dragon. This period dates back to A. D. 523, and 
ends in 1783 ; which is the great period, in the his- 
tory of the world, in which priestly and political 
oppression were unmitigated, and had often been 
exercised with the greatest cruelty over the subjects 
of Church and State. But at the end of this period, 
by the providence of God, this corrupt, cruel and 
unjust state of things was overthrown ; and the 
Trinity, Truth, Right, Liberty, the Ancient of Days, 
again assume and establish dominion over mankind; 
for this conflict between Right and Wrong was not a 
war of conquest, but one of principles ; and yet, 
not a war of words, but of swords. 

Political and priestly oppression had bound the 
wnole world, up to this date, as with a massive iron 
chain ; which, it was believed, the strength of ages 
could not break. But the giant Liberty, the off- 
spring of the woman clothed with the sun, had dwelt 
in the wilderness until his strength had been renewed 
as the eagle's. Then rising, like Samson, in the 
greatness of his strength, he broke this chain as a 



416 PREDICTIONS 

thing of naught, and took it to bind kings as captives 
to his conquering chariot. 

[Y. 17. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, 
and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, 
which keep the commandments of God, and have the 
testimony of Jesus Christ] — This signifies that the 
same power, the Red Dragon, which had persecuted 
and afflicted the woman in the wilderness, over whom 
she had gained so signal a victory, was greatly en- 
raged against her ; and that he sent his armies into 
the country of the woman to make war with the 
remnant of her children, which were left after the 
previous war ;- which implies that this second war 
was soon after the first, even while the remnant were 
living in 1813, who had been in the first war, or war 
of the Revolution. 

And it would seem, from the words of the Prophet, 
that the secret cause of this second war against the 
woman and the remnant of her children, was on ac- 
count of their rejection of all authority but that of 
God ; and that they would own allegiance to none 
other ; and that no law would be obeyed by them 
which was not in accordance with the great constitu- 
tional law, the Old and New Testaments — the in- 
spired law and testimony. 

Here, as in the former war, the Dragon was con- 
quered, after nine times seven battles by sea and 
land, on the continent of America, and after twice 
seven battles in the country of Europe; and his 



OF THE PROPHETS. 417 

political and ecclesiastical power are effectually 
broken in this new wilderness — and, from the indi- 
cations of prophecy, we clearly infer that he will 
never return again to wage war with the woman, or 
the remnant of her children. Here, in 1812 to 
1880, ended Daniel's twelve hundred and ninety 
days ; and now, at this time, we are drawing nigh to 
the period where ends the third woe — for the power 
of oppression will soon be gone, and the abomination 
which maketh desolate shall be taken away forever. 
This is the period in which the daily sacrifice, 
political power, was taken away, and the extreme 
hatred of monarchy was subdued, which had de- 
termined to conquer or desolate this country. The 
Papal Corporation was the only power in America 
or Europe that offers a daily sacrifice ; and, there- 
fore, this is the power represented in the descriptive 
language of the Prophet. 

The Roman Catholic Church is the only power or 
Corporation in Christendom, that offers a daily sac- 
rifice ; but her priests and hierarchy offer the sacri- 
fice of the mass every day ; and therefore she is the 
power foretold by the Prophets. 



418 PREDICTIONS 

CHAPTER XIII. 

REVELATION, CHAP. XIII. 
PART THIRD, PERIOD THIRD— Continued. 

This chapter represents a monstrous Beast, which 
arose out of the sea, and has exercised a controlling 
influence during this period. This Beast is the new 
Roman Empire, which began to exist in the days of 
Justinian, A. D. 523, and was fully established by 
the year 540, and was to continue 42 months, or 
1260 years, to A. D. 1783 to 1800. This is the 
Beast which took the place of Daniel's Beast, with 
seven heads and ten horns, before which the Woman 
first fled into the Wilderness. But it was from St. 
John's Beast that the Woman flew or sailed into the 
wilderness the second time, when she came to Amer- 
ica, in A. D. 1620, and has to continue in the wilder- 
ness from the above date, one thousand two hundred 
and threescore days, or 1260 years, to the time of 
the cleansing of the Sanctuary, in A. D. 2880 to 
2940. 

This Beast signifies that Church and State union, 
political and priestly power, which used its authority 
to promote Idolatry, and desecrate every command 
ment of the Decalogue, and persecute unto death 
every one who would not submit to this hateful mon- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 419 

ster, the offspring of Sin and Disobedience. This is 
the Beast which overcame and killed the two wit- 
nesses, yet would not bury them, but kept them in 
the most public places, as Forums, Temples and 
Churches. But after three days and a half, the wit- 
nesses are raised ; this three and a half days must 
evidently coincide, with three and a half Times, or 
one thousand two hundred and threescore days, which 
are equal to 1260 common years. 

CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL ANNOTATIONS. 

[V. 1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and 
saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven 
heads and ten horns, and upon his horns tens crowns, 
and upon his heads the name of blasphemy] — In the 
twelfth chapter the prophet saw two notable signs or 
miraculous wonders, the Woman clothed with the 
Sun, the armor of light, righteousness and beauty : 
and the great Red Dragon, a corrupt, cruel, and un- 
just political power ; the former representing the 
true Church ; the latter, her great enemy. 

With this chapter, however, the scene changes, 
and we have the more political phase of the character 
of the woman's great enemy, represented under the 
metaphor of a monstrous wild beast, as the original 
signifies ; one whose nature has not been tamed. 

St. John was standing upon the sand of the sea, 
when the vision was changed from the woman and 
red dragon, to that of the wild beast. This beast is 



420 PREDICTIONS 

designed to represent the same government which 
was symbolized by the Red Dragon, in a different 
aspect, so as to make the prophecy doubly instruc- 
tive ; which we have already shown is customary 
with the divinely-inspired prophets. 

Christianity arose, was promulgated and estab- 
lished by its Divine Author, and his apostolic suc- 
cessors, in the days of the Red Dragon, as we have 
already shown. The Red Dragon, or Pagan Roman 
Government, was Daniel's seven-headed and ten- 
horned beast ; which began to exist about 737 years 
B. C, and was to continue in power for three and 
one half times, which we have shown to be 1260 
years ; and therefore he must have existed to A. D. 
523 ; and this is positively the period of time that 
Daniel's beast did exist ; for in the days of Justinian 
the whole system of Pagan Roman Government was 
remodeled in his Code, and in the Pandects and In- 
stitutes which were first promulgated about A. D. 
523, as will be seen below. 

" Among the patrons and encouragers of litera- 
ture, during the sixth century, must be enumerated 
the Emperor Justinian, to whom several literary per- 
formances have been ascribed. At a very early pe- 
riod of his reign, A. D. 525, this monarch projected 
a reformation of the Roman jurisprudence ; and in 
conjunction with nine others of the most celebrated 
professors of the civil law, the learned Tribonian at 
the head, at length accomplished this arduous, but 



OF THE PROPHETS. 421 

necessary task, which Justinian had prescribed. The 
new Code was perfected in fourteen months, and 
honored by the name and sign-manual of the empe- 
ror. A more arduous operation still remained ; it 
was to extract the spirit of jurisprudence from the 
decisions and conjectures, the questions and disputes 
of the Roman civilians. Seventeen lawyers, with 
Tribonian at their head, composed from these mate- 
rials, the Pandects, which were accomplished in three 
years. To these were added, by the command of the 
emperor, and the diligence of the imperial delegates, 
the Institutes, which were divided into an elementary 
treatise comprised in four books; and like the Code 
and Pandects, to which they were designed as an in- 
troduction, are also honored with the name of Jus- 
tinian. 

" The Code made its appearance A. D. 528, and 
the Institutes A. D. 533, a month before the publi- 
cation of the Pandects, which had, however, been 
previously compiled." 

Here we have proof positive, that Daniel's fourth 
beast, the old Roman government, was overturned, 
and that St. John's seven-headed and ten-horned 
beast began to exist, as the successor of the seven- 
he;; (led and ten-horned beast of the prophet Daniel. 
And it was truly " out of the sea," which we have 
shown, is used metaphorically for Church and State 
union government, that St. John's beast arose ; and 
the times, character, actions, and events, all concur 
36 



422 PREDICTIONS 

to prove that our interpretations in regard to this 
monstrous beast are correct. 

Now, if we measure back 1260 years from A. D. 
523, we shall come up to the founding of Rome, 737 
B. C. Historians however, do not give this as the 
date of founding Rome, but place it about fifteen 
years earlier. But then they are not agreed as 
to the precise epoch, and, from the difficulties which 
surround the subject, how can it be decided? Let 
us hear what they say in regard to this epoch. 

" It is not to be concealed, however, that there are 
circumstances which throw a degree of suspicion on 
this portion of the Roman history. It is to be noted 
that but seven kings reigned during the period of 
two hundred and forty-four years, and that some of 
them died violent deaths. Moreover, it is allowed 
that there were no historians for the first five centu- 
ries after the building of Rome. And Livy testifies 
that almost all the ancient records were destroyed 
when the Gauls took the city, 385 years B. C." — ■ 
Blair's Outlines of Chronology. 

Now, this fourth beast began to exist at the found- 
ing of Rome, and continued to live in the same man- 
ner for three and a half times, or 1260 years, which 
period brings us from the founding of the govern- 
ment, to its final overthrow in about A. D. 523. 
Now, St. John's beast is but a successor of Daniel's 
fourth beast, and begins to exist where Daniel's 
fourth beast loses his supremacy. Power was given 



OF THE PROPHETS. 423 

to St. John's beast to continue forty-two months, 
which we have shown is also equal to 1260 years. 
Now, if to A. D. 523 we add 1260, it will bring us 
down to A. D. 1783, when the political and ecclesi- 
astical power of Popery, or the Papal Corporation 
was broken in the country or wilderness of the wo- 
man ; and it is worthy of remark, that America, ex- 
cept along the sea coast, at this period was almost 
literally an uncultivated wilderness, from the Atlan- 
tic to the Pacific Ocean. 

Here, then, we have ascertained the epoch at which 
Daniel's beast begins to live, and the time when he 
expires ; and then when St. John's beast arose out 
of the sea. And it will be seen by the following 
brief quotation, that Justinian was among the first 
to arrogate the claim of universal bishop, which hap- 
pened about the time of remodeling the Roman laws, 
and the promulgation of the Justinian Code. This 
was the first time the world ever saw a bishop vested 
with the prerogatives of a prince, and ranked among 
the sovereigns of the earth. His holiness added a 
temporal to a spiritual kingdom; the crown to the 
mitre; and the scepter to the keys. 

" The claims to Supremacy, which had for preced- 
ing centuries been asserted by the bishops of Rome, 
were at first faintly urged, and promoted by artful 
and almost imperceptible means. They now, how- 
ever, insisted upon superiority, as a Divine right at- 
tached to their See, which (they claimed) had been 



424 PREDICTIONS 

founded by St. Peter; and this doctrine, which had 
appeared to influence the conduct of some of the 
Romish bishops of the preceding century, was no 
longer concealed, or cautiously promulgated, by those 
who possessed the See during the present period." 

¥ The advantages attendant upon the acquisition 
of such enormous power were annoyed by jealousies 
and apprehensions. The bishops of the Byzantine 
See, scarcely less arrogant and ambitious than their 
brethren of Rome, refused to acknowledge their pre- 
eminence, and laid claim to similar authority. The 
arrogant pretensions of these rival sees involved them 
in continual dissensions ; which were prolonged and 
prodigiously increased by the conduct of John the 
Easter, a prelate distinguished for his austerity, 
who, in a council held at Constantinople, A. D., 588, 
assumed the title of Ecumenical or Universal Bishop 
(it was precisely twelve hundred and sixty years 
from this date that Pius IX, his successor, was com- 
pelled to flee from Rome for safety and protection, 
A. D., 1848.) 

" This appellation, which implied a pre-eminence 
difficult to be endured, was opposed by Pelagius II, 
who was then bishop of Rome ; and earnestly con- 
tested by his successor, Gregory the Great, who as- 
serted in lofty terms the rights of the Romish See 
to an entire supremacy over the whole Christian 
world." 

This beast of St. John has the same number of 



OF THE PROPIIETS. 425 

Leads and crowns, as the Red Dragon described in 
the previous chapter, and is the same beast, with 
this addition, that upon his heads he has the name 
of blasphemy. By this we understand that the heads 
or chief rulers of the great Corporation or govern- 
ment, assumed blasphemous titles, and therefore 
blasphemous prerogatives. This is the only new 
feature added to this monstrous beast, which in every 
other respect has been already described in our ac- 
count of the great Red Dragon, chapter XII. 

Blasphemy is contemptuous treatment of God, his 
Word, and his people ; all of which this beast has 
been guilty, as we have fully established. But blas- 
phemy is the assumption of titles, prerogatives, and 
power which belong only to God. The facts to 
prove that this beast is pre-eminently obnoxious to 
this last charge, we now proceed to place before the 
reader. 

" The Supremacy is, by the patrons of Romanism, 
uniformly ascribed to the Pope. This title the par- 
tisans of popery use to represent the Roman hie- 
rarch's superiority in the Church. But the author- 
ity attached to this dignity, remains, to the present 
day, undecided." 

1. " One variety restricts the Roman pontiff to a 
mere presidency, similar to the moderators in the 
Scottish assembly, or the prolocutor's in the English 
convocation. The first among his equals, the Presi- 
dent of the assembly ; he is not the Church' s master, 



426 PREDICTIONS 

but his minister. Such are the statements of Du 
Pin, Rigaltius, Filaster, Gibert, and Paolo." 

2. " A second variety allows the Pope an unlim- 
ited sovereignty. The abettors of this system, over- 
stepping the bounds of moderation, would exalt the 
primacy into a despotism. The popedom, according 
to these speculators, is a monarchy, unlimited by 
democracy or aristocracy, by the laity or the clergy. 
The Roman Pontiff's power is civil as well as eccle- 
siastical, extending both to the Church and the State ; 
and the legislative as well as executive, comprehend- 
ing in its measureless range both the making and en- 
forcing laws. He is clothed with uncontrolled au- 
thority over the Church, the clergy, councils, and 
kings. 

3. " A third variety would raise the Pope to an 
equality with God. The Italian school, one would 
expect, confers a power on the Roman hierarch cal- 
culated to satisfy the highest ambition. But the 
Transalpine system does not terminate the progres- 
sion. A third description of flatterers have pro- 
ceeded to greater extravagancy, and vested his holi- 
ness with ampler prerogatives. These, in the ex- 
orbitance of papal adulation, have insulted reason, 
outraged common sense, and ascended, in their im- 
pious progress, through all the gradations of blas- 
phemy. Pretended Christians have ascribed that 
Divinity to the Roman Pontiff, which the Pagans at- 
tributed to the Roman emperors. Domitian, ad- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 427 

dressing his subjects, in his proclamation, signed 
himself their ' Lord God.' Caligula arrogated the 
name of the • Greatest and Best God ; ' while Sapor, 
the Persian monarch, affected, with more modesty, 
to be only ' the Brother of the Sun and Moon.' 
This blasphemy has been imitated by the minions S, 
his Roman infallibility. This blasphemy, the holy, 
unerring, Roman council heard without any disap- 
probation, and the Pontiff with unmingled complac- 
ency. The Man of Sin then • sat in the temple of 
God, and showed himself that he was God.' 

4. " A fourth variety, on this subject, makes the 
Pope superior to God. Equality with the Almighty, 
it might have been expected, would have satiated 
the ambition of the Pontiff, and satiated the syco- 
phancy of his minions. But this was not the gid- 
diest step in the scale of blasphemy. The superior- 
ity of the Pope over the Creator has been boldly and 
unblushingly maintained by Pontiffs, theologians, 
canonists, and councils, and thus the predictions of 
the prophets have been fulfilled. 

" According to Cardinal Zabarella, ' the Pontiffs, in 
their arrogance, assumed the accomplishment of all 
they pleased, even unlawful things, and thus raised 
their power above the* law of God.' The canon law 
declares that 'the Pope, in the plenitude of his 
power, is above right, can change the substantial na- 
ture of things, and transform unlawful into lawful.' 
Bellarmine's statement is of a similar kind. The 



428 PREDICTIONS 

cardinal affirms that ' the Pope can transubstantiate 
sin into duty, and duty into sin.' ' He can,' says 
the canon law, 'dispense with right.' Stephen, 
Archbishop of Petraca, in his senseless parasitism 
and blasphemy, declared, in the council of the Lat- 
^r;m, that Leo possessed i power above all powers, 
both in heaven and in earth.' The son of perdition, 
then, ' exalted himself above all that is called God.' 
This brazen blasphemy passed in a general council, 
and is, therefore, in all its revolting absurdity, 
stamped with the seal of Roman infallibility. 

" Such are a few of the opinions which speculators 
have entertained of the Pope's jurisdiction and au- 
thority. These opinions have not been confined to 
empty speculations; but have, as far as possible, 
been realized in action on the wide theater of Chris- 
tendom, and before the public gaze of an astonished 
world. The Roman hierarchy has, in reality, passed 
through all the gradations of humility, pride, power, 
despotism, and blasphemy." 

[ V. 2. And the beast which I saw was like unto a 
leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and 
his mouth as the mouth of a lion : and the dragon 
gave him his power, and his seat, and great author- 
ity] — This beast is possessed of the characteristics 
and features of Daniel's fourth beast ; and has the 
activity of Daniel's third beast the leopard, in pro- 
moting its own interests ; and the cruelty of Daniel's 
second beast the bear, in tearing to pieces, and de- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 429 

vouring all who did oppose or refuse to submit to 
it ; and the pompous, bold, and thundering character 
of Daniel's first beast the lion, claiming supremacy 
over all other beasts or governments, and trying to 
frighten all other beasts by his lion-like, roaring 
bulls, which he has thundered against them from his 
lair, the Roman Vatican, as we shall see from the 
following quotation : 

" The friends of Romanism differ as much, in the 
vroof of supremacy, as in its extent and significa- 
tion. The pontiffs and their minions, about the be- 
ginning of the ninth century, fabricated an extraor- 
dinary story about Pope Peter's Roman episcopacy 
and ecclesiastical supremacy, and the transmission 
of all his honor and jurisdiction to his pontifical suc- 
cessors. The tale, if arranged with judgment and 
written with elegance, would make an entertaining 
religious novel ; but as destitute of evidence as Rod- 
eric Random, Tristram Shandy, or the Seven Cham- 
pions of Christendom. The fiction, too, has been 
composed by bungling and tasteless authors. The 
plot is far inferior to that of Don Quixote or Tom 
Jones. The characters, emblazoned with ridiculous 
and legendary miracles, the offspring of credulity 
and tradition, bear no resemblance to probability ; 
whilst the language, in which it has been uniformly 
couched, is unpolished and repulsive. 

" The machinery is such as might be expected in a 
romance of the dark ages. Simon, a magician, is in- 
37 



430 PREDICTIONS 

trocluced, accompanied with. Helen, a goddess, who 
had been taken from the Tynan brothels, and who 
had been transformed from a courtesan into a divin- 
ity. This man had, by the arts of necromancy, ob- 
tained an infamous notoriety : and the apostle, it 
would appear, was conducted to Rome for the pur- 
pose of withstanding the enchanter. The new Pope 
was opposed to the old conjuror. Simon, before the 
emperor Xero and the whole city, flew into the air. 
But Peter, kneeling, invoked Jesus : and the devil, 
in consequence, who had aided the magician's flight, 
struck with terror at the sacred name, let his emis- 
sary fall and break his leg. One stone, in the Ro- 
man capital, retains, to the present day, the print of 
Peter's knee where he prayed, and another, the blood 
of Simon where he fell ! 

" The hero of this theological romance is the al- 
leged Pope Peter. His supremacy is the basis of 
the whole superstructure. This ecclesiastical sover- 
eign is the main-spring which puts into motion the 
entire machinery : and the busy actors in the scene, 
accordingly, have endeavored, as well as they can, 
to support the illusion with some kind of evidence. 
The proof, such as it is, these docters extort from 
the phraseology of the Messiah, transmitted by the 
sacred historian Matthew. 

" Matthew's relation is conveyed in metaphorical 
language, and has given rise to a variety of inter- 
pretations, different expositors, even among Rom- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 431 

ish critics, explain the Rock, mentioned by the in- 
spired historian, in various senses. The diversity 
of these opinions is freely admitted by Launoy, Du 
Pin, Calmet, and Malclonat. All these confess the 
variety of opinions on this passage of Revelation. 
Each class boasts the authority of popes, saints, and 
other commentators. 

1. "One class refers the rock or foundation, men- 
tioned by the inspired historian, to Peter. These 
support their opinion by seventeen Fathers or theo- 
logians who entertained this interpretation. 

2. " A second class interpret the rock or foun- 
dation to signify the Apostles. This exposition has 
been embraced by theologians, saints, and councils. 

3. " A third class interpret the rock or foundation 
to signify Peter's faith or confession. This significa- 
tion, according to Launoy, Du Pin, Bellarroine, 
Maimbourg, Calmet, and Maldonat, has been main- 
tained by theologians, saints, popes, and councils. 
Launoy and Du Pin reckon forty-four fathers and 
popish authors who held this opinion: and the roll 
might be enlarged to any extent. 

4. " A fourth class make Christ himself the rock 
or foundation. This explanation has also been pat- 
ronized by theologians, saints, popes, and councils. 
Launoy enumerates sixteen fathers or popish doctors 
of this description ; and the list might be vastly in- 
creased. Among the fathers and doctors are Origen, 
Eusebius, Theodoret, Beda, Paulinus, Dungal, Ethe- 



432 PREDICTIONS 

rius, Raban, Tarasius, Anselm, Theophylact, Lom- 
bard, Ragusa, Lyra, Pole, and Vatablus. The saints 
are Cyprian, Cyril, Jerome, Augustine, and Aquinas, 
as well as many more that might be mentioned. The 
Popes are Celestine, Innocent, Pius, Alexander, Ha- 
drian, Nicholas, and Leo : and to these might be added 
many other Roman pontiffs. 

" The General Council of Trent pursued the same 
path. Tragus in this synod, declared without any 
declamation, that 'the Church was builded on the 
living stone, the firm and divine Rock.' This inter- 
pretation, therefore, giving the honor to the Messiah, 
was, in four general councils, marked with the seal 
of synodal infallibility. 

" This seems to be the Scriptural statement. The 
Church, says Paul, is - built on the foundation of the 
apostles and the prophets/ The twelve foundations 
of the New Jerusalem, accordingly had, says John, 
'the names of the twelve apostles.' This in the- 
metaphorical and prophetic language of Revela- 
tion, is an emblem of the extraordinary commission 
which these missionaries executed as the primary 
heralds of the Gospel. All the sacred college, there- 
fore, are represented as the foundation of the New 
Jerusalem, which, in their Master's name, and as his 
spiritual kingdom, was, by their united exertions, to 
be reared. The apostles, says Du Pin, were called 
the foundation, on account of their promulgation of 
the Gospel and their government of the Church. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 433 

u These observations, in clear terms, show the iden- 
tity of the two former, as well as of the two latter 
interpretations. But the identical meaning of both 
the preceeding, signify the apostles, and of both fol- 
lowing, denoting the Lord, are in no respect incon- 
sistent or contradictory. The one is ministerial and 
subordinate, and the other sovereign and supreme." 

" The ancients, indeed, with the utmost harmony 
and without one murmur of dissent, ascribe the re- 
ception of the keys to the universal Church. A sin- 
gle sentence to the contrary could not be extorted 
from all the ponderous volumes and all the diversified 
monuments of Christian antiquity. The gift of the 
keys, therefore, being common, could confer on an 
individual no peculiar jurisdiction or authority. 

"Tradition, on Pope Peter's supremacy, is as si- 
lent as Scripture. The ancients on this subject, vary 
from the modern friends of Romanism. Du Pin, 
Bellarmine, and Alexander, among many others, 
have, with extensive erudition and research, inves- 
tigated this controversey ; and the Sorbonist, the 
Jesuit, and the Dominican, notwithstanding all their 
learning and labor, have failed in attempting to find 
the Supremacy of his apostolic holiness in the mon- 
uments of traditional antiquity. Du Pin, with his 
usual candor, admits the silence of the most ancient 
fathers, such as Justin, Irenaeus, and Clemens of 
Alexandria. 

"A period of 370 years had run its ample round, 



434 PREDICTIONS 

and its annals, scrutinized by three learned doctors, 
could not supply a single document, witnessing the 
vicegerency of his apostolic holiness. This, to every 
unprejudiced mind, must be a clear evidence of its 
non-existence. No person, free from prepossession, 
can believe that an ecclesiastical monarchy existed 
so many years in Christendom, and, at the same time, 
remained unnoticed by so many ecclesiastical authors, 
and, in consequence unnotified to posterity by any 
hint or declaration." 

Could any set of similitudes more fitly represent 
the papal corporation from the epoch that he 
claimed universal dominion, which was about A. D. 
523 to 1783 ? During this Avhole period, he evinced 
the activity, vigilance, and rapacity of the leopard ; 
the destructive cruelty of which the bear is the em- 
blem, in his Crusades, Holy Wars, and bloody inqui- 
sitions, and the boldness, roaring, and menacing at- 
titude of the Lion, which claims supremacy among 
beasts. 

[And the dragon gave him his power and his seat, 
and great authority] — As if the above similitudes 
were not sufficient for one to distinguish who is meant 
by the beast, which St. John saw rise out of the sea, 
this was added, to make that which was certain, 
doubly evident, so that men might not misunderstand 
or misinterpret the prophecy. 

The great red dragon, Pagan Rome, gave his mil- 
itary power, his name, crown and scepter, to this 



OF THE PROPHETS. 435 

beast; and the Dragon gave him his seat of gov- 
ernment, Rome ; and the dragon gave him also his 
great legal authority, his claim to universal dominion ; 
for the Roman empire was often called all the world, 
(see Luke, i;) for a decree had gone out from Au- 
gustus Caesar, that all the world should be taxed, 
meaning all the Roman empire. 

Who has united the Roman crown with the mitre? 
Who has joined the scepter of Caesar with the keys 
of Peter? Who occupies the ancient seat, or chair 
of Caesar, and calls it the seat or chair of St. Peter? 
And who has assumed the name, and authority, and 
dominion of the Pagan Roman government? An- 
swer : The Roman popes or pontiffs, in their Corpor- 
ation, have done, or claimed, or received all that is 
alleged of St. John's beast. Therefore, the conclu- 
sion is irresistible, that the Roman Catholic Corpor- 
ation is the beast. This is all applicable to the Papal 
Corporation, and can not be applicable to any other 
corporation or government, ecclesiastical or political, 
which has ever existed on earth. Therefore, in view 
of the complete and perfect identity of the persons 
and actions, and the time when the persons existed, 
and the place where the actions were performed, 
and the number and character of the witnesses, 
Prophecy and History, by whom we prove these 
facts ; the coincidence forces the conclusion upon the 
mind, with all the power of demonstration, that the 
Beast is the Roman Catholic Church. And a re- 



436 PREDICTIONS 

jection of this conclusion implies a rejection of all 
prophecy ; a repudiation of all the history which has 
been kept in their own pontifical archives, and the 
common-sense tradition of mankind. 

|~V. 8. And I saw one of his heads, as it were, 
wounded to death] — We have already shown who the 
seven heads of the beast were, the seven primordial 
ancestors of the Japhetic family, who were repre- 
sented in the founding of Rome, and the establish- 
ment of the Roman empire, both pagan and papal. 
And this head was the Gomerian, German, or Anglo- 
Saxon ; and this wound was received in the dreadful 
and valiant battle for truth at the Reformation in 
Germany and England in the days of Luther. But 
this deadly wound was healed, and the High Church 
of England and the old Lutheran Church, have be- 
come about as formal, and possess about as little 
vital or spiritual religion as the Roman Catholic. 

[V. 4. And they worshiped the dragon] — The Pa- 
gan political power was highly respected for his ur- 
banity in uniting with the Beast that arose out of the 
Sea, and resolving all their power, ecclesiastical and 
political, into one corporation, as is the case with the 
High Church of England, the old Lutheran, and the 
Roman Catholic Church. [And they worshiped the 
Beast.] The Romanists paid both civil and ecclesias- 
tical honors to those who from time to time have been 
component parts of this Beast, both while they were 
living and after they were dead, by canonizing them 



OF THE PROPHETS. 437 

as saints, and offering solemn prayers to them, which, 
should only be offered to God. 

[And who is able to make war with him?] — For he 
claims all power, both civil and ecclesiastical; both 
in time and eternity ; therefore, if his claims be true, 
his menacing is to be feared : for what advantage in 
gaining a temporal victory over such an enemy ; when 
thereby one incurs the eternal loss of his soul ? 

[V. 5. And there was given unto him a mouth 
speaking great things and blasphemies ; and power 
was given unto him to continue forty and two months] 
— For an explanation of this verse see the notes and 
quotations on the first verse of this chapter. But 
that the reader may have before him a few more speci- 
mens of Popish arrogance, menace, and blasphemy 
against each other as well as against heretics about 
apostolic succession, we submit the following : 

" The pontifical succession is attended with more 
difficulty than the quadrature of the circle or the lon- 
gitude at sea. The one presents greater perplexity to 
the annalist and the divine, than the others to the 
geometrician and the navigator. The quadrature and 
the longitude, in the advanced state of mathematics, 
admit an approximation. But the papal succession 
mocks investigation, eludes research, and bids proud 
defiance to all inquiry. 

"The difficulty on this topic arises from the varia- 
tions of the historians and electors, and from the faith 
and morality of the Roman Pontiffs. Historians, for 



438 PREDICTIONS 

a century, differed in their records of the Papacy; 
and the electors, in thirty instances, disagreed in their 
choice of an ecclesiastical sovereign. Many of the 
Popes embraced heresy and perpetrated immorality; 
and these considerations render the problem of their 
legitimate succession an historical and moral im- 
possibility." 

" The reasoning of the Romish advocates on this 
question is remarkable only for its silliness. Bel- 
larmine's arguments on this topic are like to those of 
a person, who, in the manner of Swift, wished, in so- 
lemn irony, to ridicule the whole story. He is so 
weak, one can hardly think him serious. A supposi- 
tion which, if true, should be supported by evidence 
the most indisputable, is as destitute of historical tes- 
timony as the visions of fancy, the tales of romance, 
or the fictions of fairy-land." 

"The variations of historians in this manner, have 
introduced confusion into the annals of the Roman 
Pontiffs. Petavius confesses their doubtfulness till 
the time of Victor, and Bruys, the impossibility of 
discovering the fact. The most eagle-eyed writers, 
says Cossart, can not, amid the darkness of these 
ages, elicit the shadow of truth or certainty in the 
papal successions. This diversity appears, indeed, in 
the history of the Popedom, during the early, the 
middle, and the modern ages. The partisans of Ro- 
manism boast of an uninterrupted and unbroken suc- 
cession in the soverign Pontiffs and in the Holy See. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 439 

But this is all em] ,ty bravado, The fond conceit shuns 
the light: and vanishes, on examination, like the 
dream of the mt rning. Each historian, ancient and 
modern, has hi?, own catalogue of Popes, and scarcely 
two agree. The rolls of the Pontiffs supplied by the 
annalist of the Papacy, are more numerous than all 
the denominations which have affected the appellation 
of Protestantism. Such are a few of the historical 
variations on this topic, and the consequent disorder 
and uncertainty." 

[V. 6. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy 
against God, co blaspheme his name, and his taber- 
nacle, and them that dwell in heaven] — The reader 
will learn, frrn the quotations on the first and. fifth 
verses of this chapter, that this Beast has opened his 
mouth in blasp'iemy against God, claiming the titles, 
attributes, anr 1 . setting himself in the place of God ; 
and thus bks^nemed his holy name by allowing him- 
self to be oaLied by the title of Holiness; and they 
have blasphemed the tabernacle of God by calling his 
true worshipers Hereties, and their places of worship 
Protestant pens — treating them with as much con- 
tempt as if they were unworthy the name of a church. 

And they have blasphemed them that dwell in hea- 
ven, as its living members ; and also, by digging up 
the bones of those who had departed from the body, 
and are present with Christ ; and above all, they have 
blasphemed the holy inhabitants of heaven by ascrib- 
ing saving power to them, and paying divine honors 



440 PREDICTIONS 

to them, such as the Virgin Mary, all orders of an- 
gels, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and canonized saints, 
to whom they offer prayers and implore favors; at- 
tributing to them a merit and power due to God alone. 

[V. 7. And it was given unto him to make war 
with the saints, and to overcome them; and power 
was given him over all kindreds, and tongues and na- 
tions] — This Scripture foretells that the Beast was 
permitted to ma*ke war with the saints, which were 
symbolized by the "woman in the wilderness/' and that 
he overcame them — conquered them. And power 
was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and 
nations, in all the Roman empire. But the Papal 
Corporation possesses a special ubiquity of character, 
which can not be applied to any other community on 
earth. Wherever we may go upon the face of the 
earth, Rome has bad her emissaries, during the time 
of the woman's first sojourn in the wilderness; and 
even after the Reformation, when the woman had gone 
into her new wilderness, the Beast was compassing 
sea and land to subjugate the tongues, kindreds, and 
nations to his system of faith and government, 
whether upon the continents or upon the islands of 
the seas. 

And this Beast is, to this day, the great barrier to 
the progress of the Gospel everywhere ; for wherever 
the true missionary goes to cultivate a field for Im- 
manuel, he finds this enemy hath sown tares, or in an 
unexpected hour, comes and sows this evil seed, to 



OF THE PROPHETS. 441 

the detriment or destruction of the good seed of the 
kingdom of heaven. 

[V. 8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall 
worship him, whose names are not written in the book 
of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world] — In this prophecy we are told that all that 
dwell upon the earth shall worship the Beast — shall 
pay him reverence, honors, and respect, both religious 
and civil; but this will be done, however, by those 
whose names are not written in the book of life — in 
the holy register of life — or enrolled with, and ac- 
counted living members of Christ : living branches of 
the true vine, and obeying the living oracles. And 
this is a mark by which we may know whether we 
belong to Chirst, and our names are enrolled in the 
book of life ; if we love, reverence, and honor the 
unscriptural teachings of Romanism, we are the ene- 
mies of Christ; for this Papal Corporation is the 
Antichrist, in many of its doctrines and practices. 

If you live and labor for the promotion of the 
Papal Corporation you are rejecting the counsels 
of God against yourself. For the Papal Corpor- 
ation has utterly supplanted the pure Gospel by 
its doctrines of men, and introduced them, in the 
place of the Gospel system of salvation by faith alone 
in the blood, merits, and mediation of the Saviour; 
therefore, they are blind leaders of the blind, and both 
will fall into the pit together, and perish in the error 
of their way, if they do not timely repent. 



442 PREDICTIONS 

[Y. 9. If any man have an ear, let him hear] — 
What is to be the awful fate of those who turn away 
from the Gospel system, to believe fables, and recieve 
the doctrine of devils, or the Antichrist, and disbe- 
lieve and distrust the Lamb of God, the Saviour ? 

[V. 10. He that leadeth into captivity shall go in- 
to captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be 
killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the 
faith of the saints] — These words announce an in- 
fallible axiom, uttered by him with whom it is im- 
possible to lie: therefore, let him that hath an ear, 
hear what is to be the doom of those pontifical and 
political teachers who lead the people into captivity, 
by their oppressive secular power. 

Therefore a dreadful retribution awaits the Beast: 
for there is not a nation on earth, where he has not 
taken men into spiritual captivity, made them seven- 
fold more the servants of Satan ; and there is not a 
nation where he has not, either directly or indirectly, 
killed with the sword or the secular power: which 
will appear evident from the quotations we have given 
from the Roman Catholic element in ecclesiastical 
and civil history. 

[Here is the patience of the saints] — Or of the wo- 
man, or true Church, when in the days of Pagan and 
papal persecution; they were led as sheep to the 
slaughter, and as the sheep before the shearer is dumb, 
so they opened not their mouth in complaint against 
the divine government, which permitted wicked men 



OF THE PROPHETS. 443 

thus to lead his people into captivity ; and here, also, 
was the faith of the saints in believing God, that he 
will make all things which he permits men to do against 
his people, to work together for their present and 
eternal good ; whether by a life of captivity, or a 
death of martyrdom ; and that God will visit national 
sins upon nations for killing and leading men into cap- 
tivity ; therefore, all wars for conquest, have met, or 
will meet, sooner or later, just and righteous retribu- 
tion from God. 

And every man that kills with the sword, unless it 
be in their own selfdefense, or the defense of the right- 
eous principles of their government, must be killed 
by the sword; sooner or later, a just retribution from 
God will overtake the bloodthirsty, the willful mur- 
derer ; for bloody and deceitful men shall not live out 
half their days. Here, then is the patience and faith 
of the saints, amidst their persecutions and afflictions, 
which the Beast has brought upon them. And their 
faith and patience sustain the relation of cause and 
effect to each other; they believe, they have faith in 
God, and therefore, they have patience. They man 
ifest patience in all their captivity, suffering and death ; 
because they have a living faith in all the promises of 
God on their own behalf, and against their adversaries. 

[V. 11. And I beheld another beast, coming up 
out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, 
and he spake as a dragon] — In our Annotations on 
tne twelfth chapter, we have seen that the Church of 



444 PREDICTIONS 

Christ, symbolized by a woman clothed with the sun, 
brought forth her First-Born, in the days of the great 
Red Dragon, Daniel's seyen-headed and ten-horned 
Beast ; that by the persecutions, tyranny, and op- 
pression of that Beast, the woman was compelled to 
flee into the wilderness, about A. D. 303 ; where she 
continued for twelve hundred and sixty years, till the 
Reformation and Council of Trent in 1563. As every 
action requires time, and as great bodies move slowly, 
the woman required about fifty-seven years to make 
her first escape into the wilderness ; so, in coming out, 
it required time also ; and therefore, it was precisely 
fifty-seven years from the time she began to come 
out of her old wilderness which was prepared of Grod 
for her until she was completely out, and in her place 
in her new wilderness home in America, A. D. 1620. 

The same spirit which actuated the great Red Dra- 
gon to persecute the woman, and her First-Born , in- 
cited him through one of his heads, the Anglo Saxon, 
to come over into the country of the woman, and 
make war with her and the remnant of her seed, who 
had the courage to question the divine right of kings 
to rule over those who claimed that they owed al- 
legiance to Christ alone, the Kings of kings. This 
vision, however, is completed by showing the over- 
throw of that Beast of Daniel's, which had continued 
from the founding of Rome, to the year A. D. 523. 

Then St. John saw another Beast arise from the 
sea, to which the Dragon gave his power or name, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 445 

and his seat, and his great authority or dominion, 
and that this Beast was in every respect a duplicate 
of Daniel's, with the addition, that he had on his 
heads the name of blasphemy. This Beast which 
St. John saw arise out of the Sea, we have shown to 
be none other than the Papal Corporation, and that 
this Beast held unbroken sway over the world, no 
power arising superior to it, till the forty -two months 
expired, which is twelve hundred and sixty years ; 
which, if added to A. D. 523, will bring us down 
to A. D. 1783; when, under the providence of God, 
another Beast, the United States government, arose 
superior to him, which arose out of the earth, out of 
a political government, and for political purposes. 

This is the Beast which we now come to consider, 
which had two horns like a lamb, and yet he spake 
as one of the heads of the Dragon. 

How long does he have to continue, or when will 
he be overthrown ? It is a matter of no small con- 
sequence, to answer these questions correctly, as 
this is the last Beast or form of political govern- 
ment, which is to arise in the world, and is to con- 
tinue until all political power is overthrown, to give 
place to the millennium. 

We have already shown that a beast is the emblem 
of a great government or empire ; and that a horn 
is the symbol of strength or power. This Beast, 
therefore, is a great government that came up out of 
the earth, which metaphorically represents a political 
38 



446 PREDICTIONS 

government. We have shown that St. John's seven- 
headed, and ten-horned Beast was overcame in 1783, 
and, therefore, this two-horned Beast must have be- 
gun to come up a little before this period ; at least it 
begun to come out of the earth as early as 1776, 
when the contest between it and the former Beast 
first began. As no other government or sovereign 
political power arose about this time, but the United 
States of America ; therefore, I conclude that these 
sovereign States are the two-horned Beast which 
the prophet saw coming up out of the earth. 

We have now briefly shown who this two-horned 
Beast is ; the government of the United States of 
America : and when it began to exist as an indepen- 
dent government, in 1783. And is to exercise all 
power of the first beast before him ; and therefore 
as he is to exercise all the power of the first Beast, 
we conclude that he will continue at least one thou- 
sand two hundred and sixty years, as we shall show 
more fully in the sequel. 

It will be our purpose now to show the coincidence 
between this government and the Papal Roman gov- 
ernment, which if we fail to do, we have misinter- 
preted the Divine Record ; but if we show a clear co- 
incidence between the predictions of prophecy, 
and the instructions of history, we have accomplished 
our purpose. 

[And he had two horns like a lamb] — It is the 
boast of the American government that his govern- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 447 

ment is that of the Lamb, the Saviour, a Christian 
political government, and a Christian ecclesiastical 
government. These are the two horns, sources of 
controlling power in this country. It is a Dual go- 
vernment, in which every one is tried and judged as 
being worthy or unworthy of the Church ; and every 
one is tried and judged whether he is eligible or not, 
to the privileges of the State, or civil government ; 
and if not found eligible, he is excommunicated 
from the Church; or disfranchised by imprisonment, 
or dismembered by capital punishment from the 
State. 

[And he spake as a dragon] — The voice or words 
of a government, are its laws ; the laws, then, of this 
two-horned Beast must be as those of one of the 
heads of the Red Dragon, or we are wrong in our in 
terpretation. But the laws of this country are the 
same as those of England; for the Common Law of 
England was adopted in this country ; and we have 
shown that England was one of the heads of the for 
mer Beast or Dragon ; and hence a Dragon. There- 
fore this two-horned Beast speaks as a Dragon, 
through his adopted laws, and is hereby exercising all 
the political power, through his adopted laws, of the 
first Beast before him. And hereby the American 
government causes the earth, the people composing 
its commonwealth, to worship, reverence, or respect 
the first Beast, the old Roman government ; for the 
laws of England were substantially the laws of the 



448 PREDICTIONS 

Justinian Code ; and therefore the tv> T o-horned Beast 
worships the first Beast, whose deadly wound was 
healed by obeying his adopted laws. 

[V. 12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first 
beast before him, and causeth the earth and them 
which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose 
deadly wound was healed] — Ancient Pagan as well 
as Papal Rome, claimed that the government had the 
right to dictate what her subjects might do, and that 
such dictation was right; and especially when en- 
acted and incorporated with the laws of the empire. 
And so with the two-horned Beast ; he protects or 
requires, by statutory provisions, things which are 
as corrupt, cruel, and unjust as ever disgraced Pagan 
or Papal Rome. These views apply to the Fugitive 
Slave Laws and the future evils foretold soon to 
come. And yet he claims to be a beast, govern- 
ment, with two horns like a lamb, merely for defense, 
and not for oppression or destruction. 

This parallel between the two Beasts, as to features, 
language, actions, laws, character, could be shown to 
be so perfect, that every one must acknowledge that 
the one is the complete type of the other. But we 
foruear to institute the comparison too minutely, lest 
we should be thought invidious. A word to the wise, 
will at once suggest many features of similarity, 
which we have not space or time to amplify. 

This two-horned Beast has not yet (1856) evinced 
the destructive proclivities of the former Beast to any 



OF THE PROPHETS. 449 

very great extent. But let him have age, and as sure 
as prophecy, " he will exercise all the power of the 
first Beast before him ! >< This is not my own dec- 
laration, Reader, so that you have no controversy 
with me about it: you. may feel in view of this awful 
fact, like one of ancient times, and be ready to ex- 
clam, What! is this government a dog, that it should 
do such a thing? But it is a Beast, and notwith- 
standing its meek appearance and pretensions, it is 
destined to do dreadful, corrupt, cruel, and unjust 
deeds, by some of its subjects, at which the ears of the 
millennial sons of Peace will tingle, and the daugh- 
ters of the Imperial Kingdom of the Prince of Peace 
shall, shudder, and the Angels of God shall weep 
and turn away in sorrow ! 

"Aa~ise, , Lord ; 0, God, lift up thine hand ; for- 
get not the humble ; wherefore doth the wicked con- 
temn God? He hath said in his heart, thou wilt not 
require it. Thou hast seen it ; for thou beholdest 
mischief and spite, to requite it with thine hand ; the 
poor committeth himself to thee: thou art the helper 
of the fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked 
and the evil man ; seek out his wickedness, till thou 
find none, that the man of the earth may no more 
oppress." — Ps. x. 

In view of these things we may ask a few ques- 
tions, which seem to me to be of great importance to 
every one, who may desire to do their duty faithfully 
before God and man. 



450 PREDICTIONS 

1. Do I owe allegiance to government by human, 
or divine obligation ? 

2. Do I owe allegiance both to the State, and to 
the United States government ? 

3. Do I only owe subordinate allegiance to the 
State, and supreme allegiance to the United States 
government ? 

4. Do I then stand under obligation to fight for 
the government of the United States ? 

1. In regard to the first question, we will remark 
that it might require a volume to answer it in all its 
bearings. The existence of this government is a 
stubborn fact, a reality not to be denied. Civil gov- 
ernment is a fact— a reality. We do not make it ; 
we find it already existing, and ourselves amenable 
to it. We are born into the nation as into the family. 
And we are to obey the laws of the land, not because 
we helped to enact them — not because we, as indi- 
viduals, have given to any one authority to enact 
them for us, but because they are the laws of the 
land. The child is to obey his parents because they 
are his parents ; he is born subject to their authority. 
So the citizen is born subject to the authority of the 
country in which he lives, or into which he may emi- 
grate. He may dislike its constitution and every 
law upon its statute-book, but this does not release 
him from his obligation to obedience while he lives 
under its jurisdiction. 

In the strict sense, then, we do not create civil 



OF THE PROPHETS. 451 

government, though we may give it form. We can 
not live prior to it, and thus discuss the propriety 
of calling it into existence, though we may modify it, 
and give it such shape as pleases us. We never de- 
cide whether government shall be, though we do de 
cide what it shall be. 

In all this we find the teachings of sound philos- 
ophy and the verdict of history to agree with each 
other, and both to coincide with the Word of God. 

In writing to the citizens of the old Pagan Roman 
Government, St. Paul exhorts them to be obedient to 
those who have the rule over them. Bad as this 
government was, men were required both b}^ human 
and divine obligation to be obedient unto it. There- 
fore the apostle exhorts its citizens to so live as not 
to be overcome, by the evil rulers of government ; 
but to overcome the evils of the government, by their 
obedient conduct, and wise conversation. "There- 
fore let every soul be subject unto the higher powers : 
for their is no power but of God, the powers that be 
are ordained of God." 

We have shown that this government is foretold 
and foreordained of God, and under him it will ac- 
complish its grand destiny, regardless of all the op 
posing powers of earth and hell. " Whosoever, 
therefore resisteth the power of this government, re- 
sisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist 
shall receive to themselves damnation. Rulers are 
not a terror to {the citizens who do) good works, but 



452 PREDICTIONS 

to the evil doers. Wilt thou tlien not be afraid of 
the power of the government? Do that which is 
good and thou shalt have praise of the same. But 
if thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he this 
government, beareth not the sword in vain : for he, 
the government is the minister of God, a revenger to 
execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.'' 

Slaverv in this nation was an evil. Was it not 
therefore* on account of this evil, that the South 
raaa afraid I Is not the prediction of the prophet, 
in regard to the exercise of power on the part of this 
government, exactly and wofully accomplished in 
regard to the Slave States? It is therefore clear to 
my mind, beyond a reasonable doubt, that I owe al- 
legiance to the United States government, by both 
human and divine obligation. 

2. Do I owe allegiance to both the State, and 
United States government ? 

This question could not be ashed, with any show 
of propriety, in regard to any other government ex- 
cept the United States of America, 

However, it is a leading question with us, on ac- 
count of the remarkable character of our government, 
The United States government is unlike all other 
governments in the\orld: it is the Beast having 
hco horns, or sources of power, both National and 
State. " Our government,'*'" says John Quincy Adams, 
<• is a complicated machine. It is an anomaly in the 
historv of the world. It is that which distinguishes 



OF THE PROPHETS. 453 

us from all other nations, ancient and modern ; from 
the simple monarchies and republics of Europe, and 
from the confederacies which have figured in any age 
upon the face of the globe." It is sometimes said 
that the States sustain to the nation the same rela- 
tion that counties do to States, or townships to 
counties. 

This statement is incorrect ; or, at least, incom- 
plete. The county government receives all its au- 
thority from the State ; while the State receives its, 
not from the United States, but from the people. 
We have two sets of Constitutions — both made by 
the people : one for the United States, others for the 
States. We might have had more, giving them to 
counties and townships and cities ; we might have 
had less, dispensing with those for States, and having 
one great Constitution for the Nation. But the 
people have chosen the present mode, with a National 
Government for national matters, and State govern- 
ments for municipal and local matters. And thus 
the predictions of the prophet have been exactly ful- 
filled ; the Beast has but two horns, the government 
but two sources of power, State and National. These 
two have different functions, and need not conflict 
with each other ; but if the conflict comes, is mj al- 
legiance due to the United States, or to the State in 
which I live ? 

Here we see the doctrine clearly taught by our 
wisest Statesmen, which fully coincides with the pre- 



454 PREDICTIONS 

dictions of the prophet, that this beast or government 
was to have but two horns or sources of power. It 
has its National and State Constitution : Its National 
and State Legislature ; Its National and State laws; 
Its National and State governor ; Its National and 
State, legislative, judiciary, and executive depart- 
ments. 

By these hvo horns like a lamb, means of power, 
signifying self-preservation and self-defense, it coins 
money ; encourages agriculture, useful arts, and man- 
ufactures : regulates commerce ; declares war in self- 
defense ; concludes peace ; and does all other things, 
which a great Nation of right may do. Therefore it 
is predicted by the prophet that this government is 
to exercise all the -power of the first beast before him. 
Hence both National and State governments are 
legitimate, and I am bound to obey both when they 
do not conflict with each other. But in such an 
event, the loyal path of duty is plain to all. 

3. Do I owe subordinate allegiance to the State, 
and supreme allegiance to the United States govern- 
ment? 

My first remark in support of the position that 
there is no true sovereignty in any State, is that 
State sovereignty leads legitimately to secession. 
This is the argument of Mr. Jefferson Davis and his 
associates ; and I hold their conclusion to be irre- 
sistible, if their premises are admitted. Says Mr. 
D., before leaving the United States Senate, " I have 



OF THE PROPHETS. 455 

for many years advocated, as an essential attribute 
of State Sovereignty, the right of a State to secede 
from the Union." And, again speaking of Nullifi 
cation, he says, " Secession belongs to a different 
class of rights, and is to be justified upon the basis 
that the States are sovereign." This right of seces- 
sion is not a revolutionary one, according to him, 
but a pacific, legitimate right, to be exercised when- 
ever, and ior whatever reasons, the State may deem 
proper. In his inaugural, he says, " It is an abuse 
of language to call the act of the Southern States in 
forming their Confederacy, a revolution." 

But State Sovereignty not only leads to secession, 
as a logical inference — it Has led to it as a bloody 
reality. Secession is no longer a mere political her- 
esy ; it has been acted out by nearly all the States 
of the South. It has already cost hundreds of mil- 
lions of treasure, and hundreds of thousands of lives. 
If anything were wanting to show the absurdity of 
State Sovereignty and secession, it has been furnished 
by this attempt to carry it into practice during this 
present Rebellion. 

In further answer to this question, we refer the 
reader to 1 Pet. ii. 11-17. "While moved by the 
Spirit of Prophecy, and divine inspiration, St. Peter 
evidently had a correct view of our obligation to this 
government. Addressing the Jews, which were scat- 
tered abroad as pilgrims in the world, and would be 
such down to these times, and until the second advent 



456 PREDICTIONS 

of the Messiah. He beseeches them and us also, to 
submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord's 
sake. Whether it be to the King, as siqireme, or to 
others as subordinate. 

Now the President of these United States, when 
he is legally in office, is to us the king, and his au- 
thority^ supreme : Therefore I owe supreme al- 
legiance to the government of the United States, and 
to°every ordinance of man under his direction and 
control ; and subordinate allegiance unto the gover- 
nors of the States, as unto them that are sent by him, 
for the punishment of evil doers, or Rebels against 
the government, and for the praise of them that con- 
tinue in well doing. Wherefore we must needs be 
subject, not only for fear of the wrath of the govern- 
ment, but also for conscience' sake, that we may have 
a good conscience, because we have not offended God 
or man by disobedience or Rebellion. 

Therefore, every one should willingly pay their 
tribute for the support of the government : for its 
officers are God's ministers. If there is anything in 
the laws or administration we do not like, be patient; 
let patience have its perfect work. " It is good that 
a man both hope, and wait patiently for the Lord." 
Ten years patient Slavery of the Whites, by the 
Fugitive Slave Law, procured the entire freedom of 
,he Blacks, and the eternal liberty of the Nation. 

4. Do I stand under obligation to fight for the 
Government of the United States ? 



OF THE PROPHETS. 457 

If I am under obligation to obey every ordinance 
of man, and above all, to obey the commandments 
of God, then I am under obligation to fight in de- 
fense of myself, and the government ordained of 
God. But this we have shown to be true ; therefore 
the obligation is binding upon every man when the 
proper requisition is made for him. 

In all governments, obedience is due to all laws in 
force, and to all persons in authority. In our own 
mixed government, the highest allegiance is due to 
the Nation, and not to the State. If the State 
can absolve its citizens from their allegiance to the 
General Government — that is, to the government 
which represents the whole people — anarchy at once 
ensues. 

The doctrine of State Sovereignty, using the word 
in its strict and proper signification, is utterly de- 
structive of all government, for it leads legitimately 
to secession, and secession is political disintegration. 
There is no true sovereignty attributed to the States 
in the Constitution ; but, on the contrary, all the 
powers involving it are delegated to the General 
Government, and expressly prohibited to the States. 
The more we study the history of our country, both 
before the adoption of the Constitution and since, 
the more shall we be convinced that State Sovereign- 
ty never had any legitimate place in our govern- 
ment. 

State Sovereignty is utterly antagonistic to na- 



458 PREDICTIONS 

tionality; and the consistent advocates of the doc- 
trine are those who deny that we are a nation. Is 
it not time that those who believe we are a nation, 
as truly as in France or England, should give up the 
use of the expression, State Sovereignty, which has 
been employed by political demagogues to drag whole 
States into rebellion? 

There is not the slightest desire on the part of 
any one to obliterate State lines. Though appar- 
ently complicated in structure, our Government is, 
practically, far more simple in its operation, because 
of the division of the powers and functions between 
the State and the Nation. Keep out this insane 
jealousy lest the rights of the States shall be en- 
croached upon, and infuse more reverence for law 
and more respect for our ruiers, and we shall soon 
be a righteous, peaceful and happy Nation. 

In confirmation of this position, that we are under 
obligation to fight in self-defense, and defense of the 
government, we quote the words of the prophet, 
Micah, chap, iv: 

" But in the last days it shall come to pass, that 
the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be es- 
tablished in the top of the mountains, and it shall be 
exalted above the hills; and people shall now unto 
it. And many nations shall come and say, Come, 
and let as go up to the mountain of the Lord, and 
to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he will teach 
us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths ; for 



OF THE PROPHETS. 459 

the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the 
Lord from Jerusalem. 

" Now also many nations are gathered against 
thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye 
look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts 
of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel: 
for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. 
Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion ; for I will 
make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs 
brass ; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people ; 
and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, 
and their substance unto the Lord of the whole 
earth." 

[V. 13. And he doeth great wonders, so that he 
maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in 
sight of men.] 

This prophecy, in my opinion, contains a predic- 
tion of the great inventions and discoveries in me- 
chanics, arts and philosophy, which were to be made 
by the subjects of the two-horned Beast. But the 
principal and greatest discovery alluded to in this 
verse, is the discovery and application of Electricity 
to the various purposes of life, and especially for 
the transmission of intelligence. 

What people on earth have made such discoveries 
and sought out so many inventions in modern or an- 
cient times as the American people ? In what 
nation had they ever succeeded in bringing down fire 
from heaven in the sight of men, before it was done 



460 PREDICTIONS 

by Dr. Franklin, a subject of the American govern- 
ment? And then the time in which this fire was 
first brought down from heaven corresponds wit'h the 
prediction. It was not done until the two-horned 
Beast arose out of the earth; that is, after the es- 
tablishment of the American government — since 
1788. Therefore, the circumstances and coincidences 
of time and place, prove this great discovery to be 
the fulfillment of the above prediction . 

[And he cloeth great wonders] — It must require a 
great Nation to do great wonders, and this is cer 
tainly true of this Nation. It requires three things 
to constitute a nation ; a country, people and laws. 
If this definition be correct, we are certainly a great 
Nation, in all these respects; but especially as to 
country or territory. 

The United States of America had, from the foun- 
dation of the Government, and still holds the Allo- 
dial Right, the allodium to all the territory, bounded 
on the north by the Russian and British possessions; 
on the east, by the Atlantic Ocean ; on the south, by 
the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican States ; and on 
the west by the Pacific Ocean. 

When " Uncle Sam " permitted and admitted this 
vast territory to be divided and subdivided into 
States, for he alone admits of States, he still held 
the allodial title to the lands ; and has disposed of 
them or leased them as the landlord does to the 
tenant. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 461 

" Uncle Sam's'' title only is sovereign, supreme 
and above tribute ! While those titles of his 
nephews and nieces, the States and people, are sub- 
ordinate, dependent and subject to taxation. 

The tenant may stay as long as he and his land- 
lord can agree ; but he can not justly say, I will ap- 
propriate the goods and chattels of my landlord, set 
up for myself, cease to pay rent, and keep posses- 
sion of the estate. 

The landlord has the legal and natural right to 
dispossess him. He is a Rebel against his landlord, 
and must submit or be destroyed as an outlaw ; or 
he and his party must destroy his landlord, and 
then set up for himself. This is precisely the con- 
dition of our nation at this time. The result we 
have yet to see ; but the prophet has predicted the 
result ; therefore we hasten to place the facts before 
the reader. 

[V. 14. And deceiveth them that dwell on the 
earth by the means of those miracles which he had 
power to do in sight of the beast ; saying to them 
that dwell on the earth, that they should make an 
image to the beast, which had the wound by the 
sword and did live.] 

[And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth] — 
Here we are told of one of the very purposes or 
uses for which this fire which the subjects of the 
two-horned beast should make come down from 
heaven, would be employed — to deceive them that 



462 PREDICTIONS 

dwell on the earth. What a wicked purpose for 
which to use such an heavenly agent, and yet how 
true the prediction, that it should be used to deceive 
them that dwell on the earth ! 

[By means of these miracles which he had power 
to do in the sight of the beast] — Those miracles 
which 7i<?, this fire or electricity should have power 
to perform, in full view of all the government had 
ever done for the protection of the rights and best 
interests of all its subjects. Would it have been 
considered a miracle all over the world, before the 
establishment of our government for any one to have 
said that intelligence could be instantly transmitted 
hundreds of miles ? And that the information could 
be transmitted by an invisible agent? Would not 
any man who lived a hundred years ago, have been 
counted hopelessly insane, if he had then affirmed 
that men would soon do what we are now doing 
every day with the telegraph ? But such are the 
developments of Nature, by the research and labors 
of Science, that hidden things are brought to light, 
and the dark sentences in the predictions of the 
prophets are made plain ! 

[Saying to them that dwell on the earth] — Here 
again the very purpose for which this fire would be 
used is foretold; to talk with', or transmit intelli- 
gence to them that dwell on the earth ; to those who 
are far away, rather than to those who are near at 
hand. Is this fire or power used for this purpose ? 



OF THE PROPHETS. 463 

If so, the prediction and coincidence with facts are 
complete, and therefore the prophecy fulfilled. 

[That they should make an image to the Beast] — 
Here is again foretold one of the most notorious 
purposes for which the telegraph would ever be em- 
ployed in all the transactions of time. To say to 
them that dwell on the earth, to make an image to 
the Beast. An Image when used allegorically by 
the prophets, signifies a government. And so even 
the different parts of Daniel's Image, signifies differ- 
ent governments, according to his own unerring in- 
terpretation. 

Therefore after the two-horned Beast, or the 
United States Government should be fully estab- 
lished, then the people would be deceived by this 
fire, the telegraphic power which was brought down 
from heaven in the sight of men, by Dr. Franklin 
and his successors in experimental philosophy. 

Now, if the so-called " Southern Confederacy" is 
the Image or government alluded to by the prophet, 
then the history of the case must show, that in set- 
ting up of this Image, they who had power in the 
old government deceived the people, and that the 
telegraph was used for this very purpose. But here 
prophecy and history perfectly coincide, and there- 
fore the fulfillment is complete. 

There never was an attempt made to set up a gov- 
ernment on earth, in which the telegraph was ever 
used, or the people were so much deceived, as in the 



464 PREDICTIONS 

setting up this Image to the Beast, the so-called 
"C. S. A." 

This prediction of the prophet was most surely 
fulfilled to the very letter, when on the 17th day of 
March, A. D. 1861, the Senators from at least mine 
of the Southern States, went out of' the Senate of 
the United States of America, to avoid the respon- 
sibility of voting on the Crittenden Compromise 
Bill, with its amendments. And then on the same 
day, telegraphed home to their constituents, and 
thereby deceived them, telling them that they could 
not get a compromise: that they were wronged, 
could not get their Rights, and were so oppressed by 
the government, that they must set up a government 
for themselves. 

And so it was telegraphed all over the land, and 
thereby deceived them that dwell on the earth ; mak- 
ing the people everywhere believe the South could 
not get her rights under the jurisdiction of the United 
States government ; and, therefore, they must make 
an Image or government of their own like unto the 
Beast that had the w r ound by a sword, and did live. 
Has the " Southern Confederacy'' this Image to the 
Beast, the traits of character ascribed to it by the 
prophet ? Is it like the Beast for deception and cru- 
elty in deceiving, murdering, massacreing, and burn- 
ing innocent men, women, and children? Is it like 
the Beast that had the wound by the sword, and did 
live, ready to destroy by rope, sword and fire, all 



OF THE PROPHETS. 465 

who do not profess to believe it is right to make this 
Image ? 

[Which had the wound by a sword and did live] — 
This Beast, to which they were to make an Image, 
was the Papal Corporation ->r government; and it 
received the wound by a sword, the sword of the 
spirit, the w^ord of God, at the time of the Lutheran 
Reformation. 

The papal Corporation had an electoral form of 
government ; so it was intended in the " Confederate 
States of America." The voting was restricted, by 
certain qualifications, to the minority ; so it was in- 
tended in the " Confederate States of America.'' 
The few ruled the many ; so it was intended in the 
" Confederate States of America." The rich ruled 
the poor ; ignorance in the common people was one 
of its institutions ; slavery was everywhere recog- 
nized and sanctioned ; so it was intended to be in 
the " Confederate States of America." 

Is the coincidence between the two Beasts or gov- 
ernments exact, in regard to character, actions, and 
Laws ? Then our interpretation is a rational demon- 
stration that the prediction of the prophet exactly 
coincides with the historical evidence in the case, 
and proves that the fulfillment is complete. 

Many things are recognized in the Bible, but they 
are not sanctioned! Idolatry is recognized, but not 
sanctioned ; Profane swearing is recognized, but not 
sanctioned ; Sabbath-breaking is recognized, but not 



466 PREDICTIONS 

sanctioned: Murder is recognized, but not sanc- 
tioned : and so is slavery recognized, and abundant 
measures provided for its amelioration, both under 
the law and the Gospel, and provisions for its final 
extinction ; but it is no where sanctioned, as a Di- 
vine Institution. 

[Y. 15. And he had power to give life unto the 
image of the beast, that the image of the beast should 
both speak, and cause that as many as would not 
worship the image of the beast should be killed] — - 
The pronoun he, in this sentence, certainly refers 
to the Beast having two horns, for its grammatical 
antecedent. 

And he, the two-horned Beast, the " U. S. A. ," had 
power to give national life to the Image, the "South- 
ern Confederacy,'*-* by simply acknowledging its inde- 
pendence. And that he still has this power, is ad- 
mitted on all hands, at home and abroad. So far, 
then, the fulfillment of the prediction is complete. 

[That the Image of the Beast should both speak] 
—That the Image" the i; S. 0.." should speak through 
its lavs, as all governments have the right to do, 
and it is the only way they can legally speak. This 
would be true, if the U. S. would just acknowledge 
its nationality; then, other nations would do the 
same ; and then the Southern Confederacy would 
take a place among the nations of the earth. 

[And cause that as many as would not worship 
the Image of the Beast should be killed]— The 



OF THE PROPHETS. 467 

United States government has the power to acknowl- 
edge the nationality of the " S. C," and to cause all 
under his dominion, to worship, respect, and obey 
the laws of the image; and cause that as many Abo- 
litionists as would not worship the Image of the 
Beast should be killed. 

The prophet foretells that the U. S. Government 
has all this power, and the history of our own times 
confirms the prediction ; and if prophecy says he 
will exercise his power for this purpose, then the 
thing is as certain as if it was done ! 

He that hath an ear let him hear, not only what 
the spirit of prophecy saith unto the churches, but 
what he says to the states, kingdoms, and nations, 
that dwell on the earth in the latter days. 

[ Y. 16. And he causeth all, both small and great, 
rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in 
their right hand, or in their foreheads] — It is plain, 
from this verse, that he, the U. S. government, will 
not give life to the Image. It must remain what it 
is, an Image only, without national life, or legal 
power, to speak or do any thing as an independent 
government ; but completely under the control of the 
U. S., for he will cause all, in his government, both 
small and great, rich and poor, to receive a mark of 
his power and authority in their right hand, by sub- 
scribing allegiance to the U. S. government; or, in 
their foreheads, by confessing themselves his loyal 



468 PREDICTIONS 

subjects, and receiving the oath of allegiance to be- 
come his obedient servants. 

Here, also, is circumstantial evidence,, directly to 
our purpose. The very condition of the nation, at 
the time when the people were to attempt to make 
this Image, is certainly clearly foretold. It was to 
have, in its population, both free and bond; this co- 
incidence, also, confirms the divine prediction. All 
must have a pass or permit, to travel or transact bu- 
siness, as a mark of their loyalty ; and being in the 
right hand, signifies that it must be respected and 
obeyed. \ 

The right hand, also, signifies the South; there- 
fore the U. S. government requires all who come 
from the South, both free and bond, to receive a mark 
of some kind, before they can pass as loyal citizens. 
The forehead, also, signifies the East; so that all 
nations coming from the East must take the oath of 
allegiance to the U. S. government. Nothing can 

be bought or sold, or any business transacted with- 
er ' -J 

out a stamp, pass, or permit from the government. 
Therefore it is foretold that the government will not 
be weakened by this attempt at division and seces- 
sion; but he will tighten the reins of government, 
lengthen his cords, strengthen himself, and enlarge 
his borders. 

[V. 17. And that no man might buy or sell, save 
he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or 
the number of his name] — This prediction is now 



OF THE PROPHETS. 469 

fulfilled since the sstting up of this Image, for no 
one can legally buy or sell land or any thing in the 
U. S. without the mark or stamp of the government, 
or the name of the government, or the number of his 
name; that is, the Initial letters of the government, 
as U. S. must be on every thing bought and sold. Is 
this true? then the prediction is fulfilled. 

The reader has before him a few quotations in this 
book, showing how the Papal Corporation treated all 
who opposed its authority. But as the U. S. Gov- 
ernment, the two-horned beast, is to exercise all the 
power of the first beast before him, or previous to 
him, therefore we have only to know what that beast 
did, to know what this Beast will do to the Image, or 
the people of the Southern Confederacy, who persist 
in their rebellion against the U. S. government. The 
U. S. government will bring the people of the South- 
ern Confederacy into obedience unto its laws, rules, 
and regulations, or it will crush every living soul out 
of existence, and then send all their rebellious, sym- 
pathizing friends to look after them in the land of 
darkness. 

All the great governments of time have been op- 
pressive, and often abuse their power, yet the Lord, 
by his holy prophets, has taught us submission to all 
the great powers of earth while he permits them to 
exist according to his ordination. If he can bear 
with them, however bad they may be, we ought to do 
the same. " It is good that man both hope, and wait 
40 



470 PREDICTIONS 

patiently for the Lord," to come and break in pieces, 
and destroy all oppressive governments, and set up 
in his own times, the everlasting kingdom of the 
Prince of Peace. 

That the reader may see how close the parallel 
now runs between our government, and the first 
beast thac was before him, in regard to the exercise 
of power, we submit a few quotations. And these 
quotations will also show that this Image, the S. 
Confederacy, is manifesting all the cruelty of the 
papal Corporation. Whatever the Southern Confed- 
eracy does, it does it as a Rebel, an enemy against 
God and man, an infamous outlaw ; for it is not a 
government ordained of God, or sanctioned by any 
other civilized nation on earth. 

The conduct of the leaders in this outlawed Con- 
federacy, at Fort Pillow, Plymouth, Libby Prison, 
and wherever they have had the power, establishes 
their Satanic character, and murderous conduct. If 
such conduct, as above, does not entitle the South- 
ern Confederacy to the appellation of an Image to 
the papal Beast, or a papal Corporation, it is useless 
to make comparison between things to ascertain 
whether they are alike. 

But hear the voice of history : 

" And he further caused laws to be enacted that no 

man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, 

by deeds or words that he was a servant of the Beast ; 

or had the name," power or authority of the Beast, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 471 

or called himself a Roman Catholic ; or had the 
number of his name, or was already recognized and 
numbered as a subject of the Roman government, 
either civil or ecclesiastical ; but especially a faithful 
servant of the Roman Catholic Church. 

"If any," observes Bishop Newton, " dissent from 
the authorized forms of Roman Catholic worship, they 
are condemned and excommunicated as heretics : and 
in consequence of that, they are no longer permitted 
to buy or sell : they are interdicted from traffic and 
commerce, and all the benefits of civil society. So 
Roger Hoveden relates of William the Conqueror, 
that he was so dutiful to the Pope, that he would not 
allow any one in his power to buy or sell any thing, 
whom he found disobedient to the Apostolic See,~so 
the canon of the Council of Lateran under Pope Al- 
exander III. made against the Waldenses and Al- 
bigenses enjoins, upon pain of anathema, that no man 
presume to entertain or cherish them in his house or 
land, or exercise traffic with them. 

[V. 18. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath un- 
derstanding count the number of the Beast ; for it is 
the number of a Man. And his number is six hundred 
three score and six.] Here is wisdom, hard to be un- 
derstood; and yet it is a mathematical demonstration, 
to prove who is meant by the Beast, like unto which 
they were to make an image or government, the 
Southern Confederacy, which we have proved to be 
a papal Corporation. 



472 PREDICTIONS 

a In this verse we have the very name of the 
Beast, given under the Symbol of the number 6QQ. 
Before the invention of figures by the Arabs, and 
their introduction into Europe in the tenth cen- 
tury, letters of the alphabet were used for num- 
bers. The Greeks in the time of Homer, or soon af- 
ter, are thought by some to have assigned to their 
letters a numerical value, corresponding to their or- 
der in the alphabet. However, what can be proved 
is, that this method of enumeration was in use a- 
mong the nations before the Christian era."' 

I shall proceed to give my own opinion on the 
subject, in plain English, as my object is to assist those 
especially who understand this language. 

[Let him that hath understanding.] Let him who 
can appreciate the force of such a demonstration, and 
has the laudable curiosity to inquire into a matter of 
so much importance, as to know or distinguish who 
this is, that is meant by the symbols of the Beast, 
count the number of the Beast and his image. 

[For it is the number of a man] — This is evidently 
to be understood as a representative man; a generic 
term, symbolizing a genus or class of men, one be- 
•ng put by enallage for many, which is everywhere 
the style of this- prophet. An expression precisely 
like this is used by St. Paul in his prediction in re- 
gard to the great apostasy : " Let no man deceive you 
by any means ; for except there come a falling away 
first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of 



OF THE PROPHETS. 473 

perdition ; who opposeth and exaltetli himself above 
all that is called God, or that is worshiped ; so that 
he sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself 
that he is God." 

Now this prophecy has been applied by all Protes- 
tant writers to the Pope of Rome, or the Romish 
hierarchy; and can not be applied with any show 
of truth and force of propriety to any other set 
of men since the Christian era ; and therefore they 
are represented, or the prophecy remains to be ac- 
complished. So in reference to the man mentioned 
by St. John ; he is evidently to be regarded as a 
representative man, a genus, one put for many. 

Now let us try this man by this rule, and number 
him by the above method, and see who is symbolized 
by the Beast. 

Let a=l,b=2, c=3, d=4, e=5, f=6, g=7,h=8, 
ij=9, k=10, 1=20, m=30, n=40, o=50, p=60, 
q=70, r=80, s=90, t=100, u=200, v=300, 
w— 400, x=500, y=600, z=700. 

Now let us ask the question. Who is the 'Beast? 
Answer : He is the Pope at Rome ! Now i : ' the Pope 
is the Beast, the letters contained in the answer will 
make the number 606, if they be aggregated into one 
sum. 

He is the Pope at Rome. Now h=8, e=5, i=9, 
s==:90, t=100, h==8, e=5, p=60, o=50, p=60, 
e=5, a==l, t=100, r=80, o=50, m=30, e=5. 
Now if we add all these figures together, they will 



474 PREDICTIONS 

make just precisely 6QQ. Here then, the Pope is a 
man, and also a generic term, used for a genus or 
class of men. 

Therefore let us ask the question again: Ques- 
tion: Who is the Beast? Answer: The Men of 
Great Sins. Now, t=100, h=8, e=5, m=30, a=l, 
n= 40, o=50, f=6, g=7, r=80, e=5, a=l, t=100, 
s== 90, i = 9, n=40, s—90, Now if these numbers 
be added into one sum, they will make precisely 666. 
Therefore, the Beast is demonstrated to be the Pope 
at Rome, the Romish Hierarchy, the men of great 
sins ; a Papal Corporation. But we ask : 

Question : Who is the Beast and his image ? An- 
swer : A Papal Corporation. Now, a=l, p=60, 
a=1? p= 60, a=L 1=20, c=3, o=50, r=80, 
p=60 , o =50, r=80, a=l, t=100, i=9, o=50 
n= 40. Now, if we add all these figures, their sum 
will be precisely QQQ. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 



475 



h 


— 


8 




t 


=±= 


100 ^ 


1 a 


— 


1 




e 


-= 


5 




h 


= 


8V p 


= 


601 


i 


= 


9 




e 


= 


5j a 


= 


1 




s 


— 


90 




m 


= 


301 p 


= 


60 


; 


6 l 


= 


100) 




e 


= 


5 V a 


= 


1 




a h 


= 


4 


a 


n 


= 


40 j d 1 


t=± 


20 




o 
P3 e 


= 


5j 


GO 





= 


50 \ -J C 
6/ ft o 


— 


3< 




"§ P 


= 


601 
50 1 


■4-3 


f 


= 


= 


50 




CD 


== 


5 


g 


= 


7^ 


giX- 


= 


80 






== 


60 f 

5J 


O 


r 

e 


z 


80 
5 


£P 
> _< o 


= 


60 
50 




CD 

-a a 

w t 


= 


100 } 


CD 


a 
t 


== 


1| tr 
100J pj a 


== 


80 
1 


* 


CD Y 

Wo 





80 i 

50 I 


43 

EH 


s 
i 


== 


901 <j t 

9 y i 





100 

9 




m 


=== 


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5j 




n 


= 


40 





== 


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e 


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s 


= 


90 


n 


== 


40 





666 666 666 

Now all this will not apply to any other man or 
set of men, or corporation, whose character, attrib- 
utes, and institutions coincide with that of the Beast. 
No other corporation on earth can be found to con- 
tain 666. Therefore I conclude, that after many 
hundred trials with various names, words, and simple 
sentences, I have not found one to make 666, except 
these. Thus I have demonstrated, satisfactorily to 
my own mind, who the Beast and his image are ; 
or who both Beasts are. The first Beast is the Pope 
at Rome, the men of great sins, and what makes this 
more forcible, is, that the term Pope is plural, for it 
was used anciently for all the clergy. It is plural 



476 PREDICTIONS 

then, like sheep, deer, geese, etc., without the plural 
form. — (See Bingham's Ecclesiastical Antiquities). 

And whenever a so called Roman Catholic Church 
exists, there is a Papal Corporation ; and there is 
the Beast, or his image. Therefore, whenever a 
Papal Corporation is found on the face of the earth, 
there the Beast is found. And any corporation or 
government having a like constitution, character and 
conduct, is the image of the Beast. But we have 
shown this to be true of the Southern Confederacy ; 
therefore it is the image to the Beast, or a Papal 
Corporation, which had the wound by a sword and 
did live. A Beast we have shown to be the svmbol 
of a government. The Beast has been proved to be 
the Roman government ; and a Papal Corporation 
being shown to contain exclusively the number 666, 
is the demonstration that this is the image to the 
Beast. Then it follows as an inevitable consequence 
that this is the "Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition, 
the Anti-Christ." If however, this be true, the 
number of his name will contain 666 ; but it does 
contain precisely this number. Therefore the Beast 
is the Anti- Christ. 

There are many Anti-Christs ; but this, of all 
others, is the Anti-Christ. Let us try this by the 
same rule by which we have demonstrated that the 
Beast is the Pope at Rome. The men of great sins, 
a Papal Corporation. 

Anti, is a Greek prefix in the word Anti-Christ, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 477 

and does not merely signify opposed to Christ : but 
that it is in the place of Christ. And in this sense, 
Romanism is a complete series of substitutes for the 
Gospel in all its parts : for it has robbed the Saviour 
of the world of his exclusive glory, by dividing the 
honor of human salvation with many partners, and 
thereby materializing his worship, turning it into 
superstition, magic and idolatry. 

Ques. "Who is the Beast ? 

Ans. He is the Anti-Christ. 

Now, if we take the numerical value of these let- 
ters, it will demonstrate that his number is precisely 
"666." H=8, e=5, i=9, s=90, t=100, h=8, 
e=5, A==l, n=40, t=100, i (Greek)=10, C=3, 
•h=8, r=80, i=9, s=90, t=100. And therefore, 
it may be affirmed most truly of the Beast ; HE IS 
THE ANTI-CHRIST. 

Now this was not merely a Beast or government 
of Rome, but a Beast or power having its seat of 
government at Rome. So if we say of this Beast, 
he is the Pope of Rome, it would not be true, and 
therefore the numerical value of the letters will not 
make 666. But if we say, he is the Pope at Borne, 
it will make 666, in all the Languages on the Conti- 
nent of Europe. This I have found true, as far as I 
have tried, in every instance. Therefore, it is demon- 
strated beyond a reasonable doubt, who is meant by 
the Beast, for it is the number of a man, and his 
number is six hundred three score and six. 
41 



478 PREDICTIONS 



CHAPTER XIV. 

REVELATION, CHAP. XIV 

PART FOURTH— PERIOD FOURTH- FROM A. D. 
1620 TO 2880. 

This Part and Period of these Prophecies relate to 
the characters actions and events of the Church and 
World, under the providence, of God, for 1260 years ; 
the period of the Woman's Second sojourn in the Wil- 
derness, to the time of the cleansing; of the Sanctuary, 
as foretold by Daniel ; which may be expected to oc- 
cur about A. D. 2880. 

It is here worthy of our most careful attention, 
that Daniel's Time, Times, and a half Time, are to be 
understood of his Fourth Beast with seven heads and 
ten horns; which symbolized the old Pagan Roman 
Government; which evidently began to exert his 
power 720 years before Christ, and continued 540 
years after Christ, when he lost his supremacy; and 
then was succeeded by St. John's seven-headed and 
ten-horned Beast the papal Roman Government which 
was predicted to exist 42 prophetic months, or 1260 
years; which brings us down to A. D. 1800 when he 
fully lost his Supremacy. Or, allow that Daniel's 
Beast began to exist and exert his power 17 years 
sooner; then, both his and St. John's Beast had time 
to exist 1260 years apiece, by 1783 — the year in which 
the American Government was established, which is 
St. John's two-horned Beast. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 479 

The great difference between the Prophecies of 
Daniel and St. John, is plainly this : the Prophecies 
of Daniel refer to the great Political changes or 
events of the World — the rise, progress, and fall of 
empires, under the special providence of God who 
sees their end from the beginning, and predicts their 
destiny and the day of their downfall; while St. 
John's Prophecies are of a double character, revealing 
the great Ecclesiastical as well as political changes 
which were to transpire in the Church, and the World, 
to the end of time. 

Daniel's seven-headed and ten-horned Beast, was 
the Red Dragon, or the Pagan Roman Empire : St. 
John's seven-headed and ten-horned Beast, was the 
Great Dragon, or the Papal Roman Empire. They 
both lived three-and-a-half Times apiece; which, if 
both be taken together, will be equal to seven 
Times, or seven times 860; which equals 2520 years. 
So that if we date back from the founding of the 
American Government, 2520 years, we come up the 
course of time to the founding of Pagan Rome — 
ahout 737 years B. G. 

Daniel records Four Periods. The first we have 
already noticed as being the age of his Fourth Beast, 
or the old Roman Empire : The ruin of the old Ro- 
man Empire was the result of its greatness, connected 
with its moral corruptions. God, in his providence 
over the Church and the World, is constantly con- 
cerned in effecting, by natural causes, the extinction 



480 PREDICTIONS 

of enormously guilty nations. Rome having become 
a mass of luxury, weakness, and profligacy, fell an 
easy prey to the Nothern barbarians, who poured in 
upon her dominions. 

At the close of this Period, 1783 to 1800, Europe, 
or the New Roman Empire, was not less corrupt, 
cruel, and unjust toward the people of God, than the 
old Pagan Roman Empire, as the bill of grievances 
set forth in the Declaration of Independence of the 
4th of July 1776, will fully prove. Nor were the 
masses of the people less luxurious, wicked and prof- 
ligate ; and although it had some iron in its consti- 
tution, yet, on account of its secret and public sins, 
which are sure to find out nations as well as men, 
under the ever-watchful eye of Divine Providence ; 
the little Stone hewn out of the Mountain without 
hands, and the miraculous Man-child, the offspring 
of the Woman clothed with the Sun, were destined 
to dash it to atoms. 

And here is the first time that a truly Christian 
nation, which held no alliance with Church and State 
union, ever overcame the Beast or Dragon of Daniel 
and St. John, for the space of 2520 years, and con- 
tinued to maintain its Rights, Laws, and Liberty; 
Rights of Conscience ; Laws of God, as the only Rule 
of Faith and Practice — and Liberty to worship God 
according to His commandments, and the testimony 
of Jesus Christ. 

Daniel's Second Period, as already noticed, brings 



OP THE PROPHETS. 481 

us 30 years further down the course of time to A. D. 
1813. The epoch of this Period which is 1290 years, 
must evidently be dated in A. D. 523 to 540, and 
therefore will bring us down to the year A. D. 1813 
to 1830. This Period is the duration of the New 
Roman Empire, and is therefore to be understood as 
an ecclesiastical and political prophecy in relation to 
Daniel's Beast, which is duplicated; and which St. 
John saw arise out of the sea, the result of Church 
and State union. 

In regard to this Period, Daniel saySj "And to the 
time" that the power which offers "the daily" sac- 
rifice, shall be taken away, shall be 1290 days. How 
true ! What a coincidence between Daniel's Proph- 
ecy, St. John's Revelation, and the records of History. 
Allow the age of Daniel's Fourth Beast to be doubled, 
it would make it 2520 years old. But St. John's 
seven-headed and ten-horned Beast is but a successor 
of Daniel's, and therefore he is but a new form of 
the Roman Empire. Both Beasts have been taken 
out 6T the way of Protestant Christian nations, as 
conquering powers. Neither has the Beast, or Great 
City, which is the daily sacrifice power, ever gained 
the final victory, though they have fought many bat- 
tles with the Woman and her children, since the Wo- 
man came into her new wilderness home. 

The Third Period of Daniel, which dates at the 
same epoch of the previous period, brings us 45 years 
further down the course of time to A. D. 1858 to 



482 PREDICTIONS 

1875. Of this Period the Prophet says, "Blessed is 
he that waiteth, (or liveth,) and cometh to the 1335 
days." Now if we add 523, the year of our Lord, 
when the New Roman Empire, St. John's Beast began 
to arise, it will make 1858. Or if we allow that this 
event occurred as late as A. D. 540, then 1335 days, 
which are years, will bring us dorm to the year A. 
D. 1875. 

How many thousands and tens of thousands feel 
and know, that Blessed is he that lived to see this 
year, 1858, which is called the " Second Pentecost !" 
And how many hundreds of thousands may yet re- 
joice to see 1875. This Period is graphically de- 
scribed, Rev. xiv: 1-6. 

Daniel's Fourth Period, which is 2300 days, is to 
be dated at the epoch when Idolatry was established, 
False Doctrine introduced, and the Church corrupted 
by the wicked practice of its rulers and members ; 
which was about the year A. D. 580, when the Roman 
Papal Government was fully established. Now if to 
580 we add 2300 it will bring us down the course of 
time to A. D. 2880, to the end of the Woman's Sec- 
ond sojourn in the wilderness ; which began, as we 
have already shown, in A. D. 1620, and was to con- 
tinue 1260 years. If to 1620 we add 1260, we have 
2880. " And he said unto me, unto 2300 days ; then 
shall the sanctuary be cleansed," the Jewish and 
Christian Churches from all errors in doctrine, cor- 
ruptions in practice, and unrighteousness in gov- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 483 

ernment; and shall be disentangled from all alliance 
with the State, called the Beast. 

It is very remarkable that the Second sojourn of 
the Woman in the wilderness and the cleansing: of the 
Sanctuary should occur in the same year : and yet 
it is a coincidence we should except from inspiration, 
in regard to the purposes of the Ruler of the TTni verse. 

We have now passed briefly through the Prophecies 
of this book down to our own times. We have seen 
that the River of Gospel Truth flowed along the 
course of time, like Ezekiel's vision of the Holy Wa- 
ters. We measured down through the Apostolic 
age to A. D. 120, we found the waters to the ankles. 
Again, when we measured to the end of the Second 
Period, to A. D. 420, the age of the Fathers, we 
found the waters to the knees. And again, when we 
had measured 1000 years, to the Reformation under 
Luther, we found the waters to the loins. After 
we measured 1000 years, and before we have come 
near to the end of the fourth measurement, we find 
it is a river which can not be passed over ; whose cur- 
rent can not be resisted ; for the waters are risen ; 
waters to swini in, where the old ship of Zion may 
safely go ; a river deep and wide, which can not be 
passed over or forded. The influence of the Gospel 
is so resistless and overpowering, that the gates of 
Earth and Hell can not finally prevail against it. 

We have now come to the fourteenth Chapter of 
the Book ; and with it must bid farewell to the past, 



484 PREDICTIONS 

while we cherish with heartfelt gratitude, the light, 
comfort, and courage, which we have received from 
this fountain of truth : Light to our minds ; comfort 
to our hearts ; and courage to our faith. Whatever 
more we have to say, refers perhaps entirely to the 
future, and therefore, remains to be fulfilled. The 
head-lands and light-houses of time, will have soon 
disappeared in the past; and then guided by our in- 
spired Chart, Compass, and Quadrant, we must look 
to the desired Haven to which we would come. 

CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL ANNOTATIONS. 

[V. 1. And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on 
the mount Zion] — After contrasting the Holy City, 
the true Church ; and the Great City, her heartless 
enemy; the woman clothed with the sun; and the 
great Red Dragon; the saints, and Beast, and his 
image, and giving instruction how to demonstrate 
who the Beast is, a new vision is presented to the 
Prophet. He looked, and lo ! after the turmoil and 
conflict of ages had passed away, a lamb stood on 
the Mount Zion, which lamb, metaphorically, repre- 
sents Jesus Christ in his sacrificial office, restored to 
the Christian Church in his instituted emblems which 
had been cast down from Mount Zion, the symbol of 
the true Christian Church. This is the holy city, 
restored again to its ancient order, beauty, and 
glory. 

[And with him an hundred and forty and four 



OF THE PROPHETS. 485 

thousand] — Equal to six thousand for each of the 
twelve patriarchs, and each of the twelve apostles of 
the Lamb ; which implies the high privileges enjoyed 
by Jews and Christians, and the great numbers of 
these, who fear God and keep his commandments, 
under the government of the two-horned Beast. 
This prediction is certainly fulfilled in these times, 
before our own eyes, in the U. S., in regard to Jews 
and Christians. 

[Having his father's name written in their fore- 
heads] — The term name often means, in Scripture, 
power, authority, and government; as a how excel- 
lent is thy name," and, " no other name by which we 
can be saved." Then we are to understand the term, 
"name written in their foreheads," that the Father's 
written authority was the rule of their lives ; written 
on their hearts and treasured in their minds — writ- 
ten by the Spirit of God; and they evince this great 
work done for them by their lives, as clearly as if it 
were written upon their foreheads; therefore, by 
their fruits ye shall know them. 

We have already noticed the great light and in- 
fluence of the Lutheran Reformation. But the great 
w r ork of grace, indicated in this passage of the Rev- 
elation, has reference to the great light — the Wes- 
leyan Reformation in England and America, since 
the rise of the two-horned Beast, or the U. S. gov- 
ernment. These have the Father's name w T ritten in 
their foreheads — they are professedly, openly, and 



486 PREDICTIONS 

practically the children of God, by faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ. 

" Almost every manuscript of any importance, as 
well as most of the versions, and many of the Fathers, 
read this clause thus : Having His name, and his 
Father's name, written in their foreheads. This is, 
undoubtedly, the true reading, and is properly re- 
ceived by Griesbach into the text." 

This rendering of the text makes the sense much 
more consistent. True Christians have the name of 
Christ written upon their foreheads, in their open 
profession and practice of the Gospel in its institu- 
tion of Baptism : and so of faithful Jews, as to the 
requirements of the Father, in their dispensation; 
for the Gospel was preached unto them by the pro- 
phets, as well as to us by the Apostles, and he that, 
among the Jews, hears the " voices of the prophets," 
and fears God and works righteousness, is accepted. 

" my people, remember now what Balak, king 
of Moab, consulted, and what Balaam, the Son of 
Beor, answered him from Shittim to Gilgal; that ye 
may know the righteousness of the Lord." "Where- 
with shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself 
beforo the high God? Shall I come before him with 
burnt oiferings, with calves of a year old ? Will the 
Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten 
thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first 
born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for 
the sin of my soul ?" 



OF THE PROPHETS. 487 

This is the language of a Jew, in his dispensation, 
anxiously inquiring, what shall I do to be saved? 
Hear the answer. 

"He hath showed thee, man, what is good; and 
what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly ; 
and to love mercy; and to walk humbly with thv 
God?"— Micah, vi. 

This was the sum of the Gospel of the Jewish dis- 
pensation ; and it is a summary of the Gospel of the 
Christian system. The Jew was saved by faith, and 
lived by faith in Jehovah, the Saviour; and the 
Christian does the same ; and like the Jew is re- 
quired to show his faith, by acts of justice and mer- 
cy to men; and by humility before his Maker. And 
hence it is written in both dispensations, " The just 
shall live by faith." 

[V. 2. And I heard a voice from heaven as the 
voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great 
thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping 
with their harps] — The voice which the Prophet 
heard, was from those who compose that part of the 
family of Heaven, which are on earth, and will fi- 
nally, through grace, pass the Jordan of Death, and 
join the family above, in the blissful mansions of the 
Heavenly Canaan. 

[As the voice of many waters] — The voice of re- 
joicing, from the regenerated multitudes of spiritual 
worshipers, since the great Wesleyan Reformation, 
have often, at their great camp meetings, been heard 



488 PREDICTIONS 

afar off, as the voice many waters : and as the voice 
of a great thunder. Sometimes the voice of rejoic- 
ing from the newly regenerated soul, seemed as sud- 
den, and as supernatural, as the voice of great thun- 
der. And sometimes, on such occasions, the cry for 
mercy, from a heart wounded by the Sword of the 
Spirit, has been as sudden, and supernatural, as the 
voice of a great thunder. 

[And I heard the voice of harpers harping with 
their harps]— Here is music and melody in the very 
enunciation of the spiritual employment of these joy- 
ful, happy worshipers. The sounds are many, go- 
ing up from a great multitude, and as the voice of 
mighty waters; and sudden and supernatural as the 
voice of great thunder, and although sounds are ma- 
ny, and the voices mighty, and apparently confused, 
yet both harmony and melody are clearly perceived, 
and all inspired, sustained, and controlled, by a mas- 
ter Spirit, who requires that every living thing 
should praise the Lord. 

[V. 3. And they sung as it were a new song, be- 
fore the throne] — The joy of heaven was hightened, 
in proportion to the greater interest manifested on 
earth, by that part of the heavenly family which 
dwelt in earthly tabernacles ; for there is more joy 
in heaven with the angels of God over one sinner 
that repenteth, than over ninety-and-nine just per- 
sons who need no repentance. The same songs which 
had been sung in a lifeless way on earth, were now 



OF THE PROPHETS. 489 

sung by the great .multitudes, with the spirit and 
with the understanding also ; and therefore, the same 
song seemed, as it were, a new song. And hence, 
the joys of the heavenly host were hightened, and 
especially the joys of those faithful ones which were 
redeemed from the earth. And, therefore, we are 
told, that they sung, as it were, a new song before 
the throne, and before the four Beasts, and the elders ; 
and no man could learn that song, but the hundred 
and forty-four thousand, which were redeemed from 
the EARTH. 

This does not merely signify, in my opinion, the 
redemption and salvation in heaven ; but a deliver- 
ance from all political entanglement and restraint by 
Church and State alliance. 

[V. 4. These are they which were not denied with 
women] — The term women is evidently to be under- 
stood in a metaphorical sense, as representing the 
Churches, in those State and Church unions, which 
are found all over nominal Christendom, except in 
America, the land where Christians are less entang- 
led than in any other country on earth. Yet in this 
country there are some who maintain the same al- 
legiance, to these women as far as they have it in 
their power, are defiled by the Mother of Harlots 
and her daughters and these women of the old world. 
Such persons are spiritual idolaters and adulterers, 
giving that honor to the creature which belongs to 
the Creator, and giving that to Caesar which belongs 



490 PREDICTIONS 

alone to God, and uniting Christ with Belial, by 
uniting Church and State, under the pretext that the 
Church will have the better protection and greater 
prosperity. 

The Church of God no more needs the help of se- 
cular hands to sustain it from overthrow, than did 
the Ark of the Lord in the days of the king of Is- 
rael, when, for putting forth his hand to prevent it 
from what he conceived to be an inevitable and ru- 
inous fall, he was punished with leprosy for life. 
So it has been with all those so-called Churches 
which have sought protection from the State. An 
incurable leprosy has cleaved unto them, and para- 
lyzed their happiness, usefulness, and spiritual pros- 
perity in the world. 

But as none can worship God in spirit and truth, 
but genuine Christians, therefore, none but such can 
understand the deep things of God ; Therefore, these 
are they which are not defiled with" women, for they 
are betrothed unto the Lord, and have not turned 
aside unto another, and by Idolatry committed spirit- 
ual Adultery. 

[These are they which follow the Lamb] — This ap- 
pears to apply to the American churches, they came 
through fire, and water, into a wealthy place, when 
the pure woman, the true Church, sought an 
asylum in this far-off wilderness. She and her 
children became the children of Providence; and 
hence, these are they which watch the ways of Pro- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 491 

violence, and follow its dictates, through evil and 
good report ; as deceivers and yet true, as unknown 
and yet well-known, and enduring all, as seeing him 
who is invisible, notwithstanding the sneers of her 
who hath committed fornication with kings of the 
earth, and yet impudently asserts that these children 
of Providence were illegitimate, because they did not 
reckon their genealogy clown through Pontifical or 
Apostolic Succession. 

[V. 5. And in their mouth was found no guile] 
— They did not feel themselves under any obligations 
to political corporations for their protection and pros- 
perity ; and therefore they declared the whole counsel 
of God freely and fearlessly to sinful men of every 
degree, not handling the word of God deceitfully, to 
win public applause, but by manifestation of the truth, 
commending themselves to every man's conscience in 
the sight of God, that they were true followers of 
the Lamb, and therefore they are without fault before 
the throne of God. 

Such, however, are seldom without fault before the 
eyes of the world, and worldly-minded professors of 
religion and for no other reason than usinu; such 
plainness of speech, in showing Israel their sins, and 
Judah his transgressions. 

The foregoing state of things has existed from 
about the time of the American Revolution, to the 
present period. The following Revelation, contained 
in the next verse, foreshows the next great ecclesias- 



492 PREDICTIONS 

tical event, which has, in my opinion, been fulfilled 
in a great measure, and is fast progressing to 
completion. 

[V. 6. And I saw another angel fly in the midst 
of Heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach 
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation 
and kindred, and tongue, and people]— The other 
angel, which the Prophet saw fly through the midst 
of heaven, was to warn men of the woful curse of 
the Crusades, the Romish Inquisition, and the great 
conflict of our own times, between Slavery and Liber- 
ty. But this angel is to bring and proclaim the bless- 
ings of the Gospel, " Glory to God in the highest, on 
earth peace, good will to men." 

This angel, in my opinion, symbolizes the Bible; 
and the various societies and institutions are wings, 
by which the Gospel has been rapidly sent through 
the whole world, since the overthrow of the Apocalyp- 
tic Beast of seven heads and ten horns, and the es- 
tablishment of the American Government in 1783, 
which we have shown to be symbolized by the Beast 
coming up out of the earth, after the political conquest 
of the first Beast, having two horns as a Lamb. It 
is really remarkable, that nearly all the Bible, Mis- 
sionary, and Benevolent Societies in the world, have 
been organized within the memory of men now living, 
and thus proving the orderly fulfillment of these won- 
derful predictions. I do not think this prophecy ap- 
plies to any especial messenger, order of preachers, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 493 

people, or society of Christians, whose professed ob- 
ject it is to send the Gospel of the Kingdom to all 
nations ; but that it applies to the efforts which have 
been recently made, and are still being made, by all 
who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and are 
laboring to send his Gospel to the nations, and give 
the Bible rapidly to the world, as on the wings of the 
wind, that it may overthrow whatsoever things are 
wrong, and establish whatsoever things are right. 

That the reader may the more readily appreciate 
our remarks, we would like to give a brief account of 
the present state of missions in various parts of the 
world. But we have not room. 

However, that the reader may have some idea of 
what the various protestant churches are doing, if 
faithful to their Saviour, we submit the statistics of 
the M. E. Church as a sample. 

The statistics of 1863, present the following results : 
Members and probationers, 923,394 ; traveling preac- 
hers, 6,788 ; local preachers, 8,156 ; churches, 9,430, 
probable value, $20,830,554; parsonages, 2,853, 
probable value, $2,790,150 ; amount collected for 
Conference claimants, 66,410 ; for Missionary Soci- 
ety, $399,073; for Tract Society, $12,534; for 
American Bible Society, $55,685 ; for Sunday School 
Union, $11,633; Sunday Schools 13,008; officers and 
teachers, 146,967 ; scholars, 732,592 ; volumes in li- 
brary, 2,300,783. 

Almost every nation on the globe have either di- 
42 



494 PREDICTIONS 

rectly or indirectly received the words of eternal life 
by means of these societies of the various churches, 
so that these coincide with the prophetic vision of 
the Angel flying in the midst of heaven with the Bi- 
ble, and thus having the everlasting gospel to preach 
unto them that dwell on the earth ; even to every 
nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. 

[V. 7. Saying with a loud voice, Fear God and 
give glory to him] — This Angel speaks with a clear, 
loud voice, as one having supreme authority to com- 
mand attention and obedience, saying, "Fear God, 
and give glory to him ; " and this is the tenor of the 
voices of the prophets, in the whole Bible. Worship 
God, the only living and true God, whose character 
and attributes are revealed through the inspired 
writings of the Bible; for he is the Creator, Re- 
deemer, Saviour, and Governor of all things; there- 
fore, Let all the earth fear God and give glory to 
him; for to him alone, and not to idols, men, or an- 
gels, all glory, honor, and power belong. 

[For the hour of his judgment is come] — In order 
that we may more readily and clearly understand 
this passage, we will here state what we have never 
before seen stated by any theologian : namely, that 
we believe that there are three judgments spoken of 
in the Scriptures. 

1. The Gospel or Probative Judgment. 

2. The Legal or Executive Judgment. 

3. The Eternal or Retributive Judgment. 



OF THE PROPHET. 495 

The judgment here spoken of is the Gospel Judg- 
ment; the time in which the Gospel is being sent 
everywhere as on the wings of the wind, and as 
swiftly as the lightning ; for now are many running 
to and fro, with the Word of God, and scriptural 
knowledge is overflowing all lands, and therefore in 
this hour, the last sixty years, the men of the world 
have been judged; their conduct approved or disap- 
proved, as clearly as if they had been brought face 
to face before the Judge of all the earth : For the 
Gospel of the kingdom has been preached through 
the written Word, or a living ministry to all nations, 
or will be by 1876. 

The Gospel or probative judgment has been going 
on every day, in all past time, from the days of 
Adam to the present hour. "Now is the judgment 
of this world," and now are the princes and people 
of this world judged by the written Word of the 
eternal Judge ; yet, because it is a probative judg- 
ment, in which sentence against an evil work is not 
speedily executed, therefore, the hearts of men are 
fully set in them to do evil. But we are now in the 
last hour, the last 60 years of this judgment; it is 
called an hour, on the same principle that we have 
shown the seventh seal period was an hour, each 
year being taken for a minute. Sixty years, there- 
fore, are equal to an hour; and we are now living in 
the last minutes of this hour of this Gospel judg- 
ment, as we shall show in the sequel of this work. 



496 PREDICTIONS 

The hour of this judgment began with the rise of 
Bible Society, in 1816, and ends in 1876. 

[Worship him that made heaven] — And all its 
hosts; therefore, they are creatures, and are not to 
be worshiped. Worship him that made the earth, 
and all it sustains ; and, therefore, they are creatures, 
and must not be worshiped. Worship him that 
made the sea, and all that go through the paths of 
the seas; and, therefore, they are creatures and shall 
not be worshiped; and the fountains of waters, for 
they are creatures, and have not saving power. The 
Word of God, in this hour, has gone out unto ail 
nations ; his Word doth run very swiftly ; it hath 
gone out into all the earth, even his Word unto the 
ends of the world, forbidding men to worship the 
hosts of heaven, the inhabitants of the earth, the 
monsters of the sea; and also forbidding men to 
make a god of the waters, as the heathen make a god 
of the Granges, and as some who profess Christian- 
ity, teach that men can not be saved without water, 
and therefore they make a god of the fountains of 
waters. God is evincing, in a remarkable manner, 
his power to save men with a free, full, and present 
salvation, without the aid of the fountains of waters, 
and judging and condemning those who would make 
a Saviour of the fountains of waters, whether the 
rivers of Asia, the baptismal fountains of Europe, or 
the flowing waters of America. 

Daniel's 1335 days are just ending, as we shall 



OF THE PROPIIETS. 497 

show; and, therefore, we may look for the glorious 
events spoken of, concerning Zion, to he soon ful- 
filled. I hold that Daniel's 1335 days were nearly 
completed in 1858, and in that year, and since that 
year, the world is experiencing, in this country, and 
in Europe, the fulfillment of the prophecy contained 
in these words : " Blessed is he that liveth and cometh 
to the one thousand three hundred and five and thirty 
days." — Dan. xii. These are prophetic days, each 
day equal to one year, and therefore the period in- 
cludes 1335 years ; and this period is just now being 
completed, and will end about A. D., 1876, and the 
world is thus beginning to enjoy the blessings so 
long foretold. Here we subjoin a brief account of 
this great event, as indicated by the following ac- 
count of the recent manifestations of the Holy Spirit 
in various churches in the United States and Great 
Britain, about A. D., 1858-'59-'60 : 

" The bodily affection attending some of the cases 
of conviction had now become an ordinary feature 
of the revival. Beforehand, every minister and re- 
ligious man in the district would have recoiled from 
the idea of such scenes; the reproach certain to 
arise would have been one ground of fear, and the 
danger of fanaticism, a more serious one. A re- 
vival, such as that lately witnessed in America, 
where the dry bones came together without any ter- 
rific shaking, was what all longed to see ; and what 
now occurred could not have found a people less 



498 PREDICTIONS 

likely to welcome any thing boisterous, or forms of 
worship less likely to fan wild-fire, than among the 
cold Presbyterians, as they were so often called. 
But here, by no man's desire or effort, contrary to 
the wish of every one, was an uncontrollable, unac- 
countable, somewhat — influence? stroke? disease? 
what? human weakness? Satanic alloy? Divine vis- 
itation? Perplexed, discomposed, awed, and star- 
tled, good men pondered much. One thing, and only 
one, was clear; but that shone like the sun — the 
moral result. The bad were suddenly good, the 
Ethiopian changed his skin, the leopard his spots. 
Instead of the thorn, came up the fir-tree; instead 
of the brier, came up the myrtle- tree. 

"The best of miracles, the moral miracle, a work 
not only above but against nature, by which deeds 
of righteousness spring from those whose natures 
had been deeply depraved — this miracle was hourly 
wrought before all men. The servants of Grod hailed 
it, wondering greatly and rejoicing much. One and 
another, known as blind from their birth, always 
stumbling pitifully on the broad road, and making 
dreadful falls close to the edge of the precipice, went 
and washed, and came seeing; came with a firm 
tread into the strait and narrow road, and went on, 
day by clay, saying to all who questioned them, 
' One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now 
I see." The fault found with this work wrought 
upon them was not that it was done on the Sabbath 



OF THE PROPHETS. 499 

day, but that clay had been put on their eyes. Why 
was that? It could do no good; it was not digni- 
fied. It was very improbable that such a strange 
and humbling circumstance should be connected with 
a work really divine. There must be error. The 
result could only be a delusion. The only possible 
answer was, 'He put clay upon mine eyes, and I 
washed, and do see.' 

" Some asserted that a revival, accompanied with 
similar affections, had never occurred in the Church 
of England. They were told, among others, of Jno. 
Berridge's Church, at Everton, in Bedfordshire, in 
the year 1759, just one hundred years ago. Others 
cried, It is all hysteria; its cause, close air, and girls 
its subjects. But open fields, road-sides, markets, 
and the cool of evening, often witnessed these pros- 
trations. Only girls ! why, bony, working men, with 
arms like the handle of a spade, of lymphatic, bilious, 
and sanguine temperaments indifferently — men, the 
like of whom not three doctors living ever treated 
for hysteria — felt this influence. We do not explain 
it; but we are very sure some who imagine they do, 
ought to read what others attempted in the same 
line, respecting the preaching sickness in Sweden, 
or the great revival in Cornwall, and then go to the 
scenes of those movements, and learn how far the 
lapse of years has accredited the imagined explana- 
tion. 

" Others say that it is all produced through ap- 



500 PREDICTIONS 

peals to the base passion of fear. Fear is not base 
in itself. Love, ill- directed, often drags us through 
vile mire ; and fear, ill-directed, drives us from right 
into wrong. But, fear of God, fear of sin, who shall 
call that base? The voice of the blessed never ap- 
pealed to a base passion ; and of all those implanted 
pure in my nature by his hand, and fouled by my 
first father's sin, no one is more frequently addressed 
by his voice than the fear of the Lord. Base ! He 
lifts us up, as on eagle's wings, and sweeps heaven 
and earth, the caverns of death, the unfathomed sea, 
with the question, 'Where shall wisdom be found? 7 
and, returning from such a flight as the soul of man 
is nowhere else carried over — Job xxviii, 12, etc. — 
he sets us down with this everlasting lesson. ' Unto 
man he said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is 
wisdom.' But were fear base, we declare that we 
heard no preaching on the scenes of the revival in 
which fear of damnation, of unquenchable fire, of 
body and soul being cast into hell, of weeping and 
wailing, and gnashing of teeth, of outer darkness, of 
many stripes, of torment in flame, of God's most ter- 
rible wrath against impenitent sinners, was appealed 
to, either with frequency or plainness, comparable 
with those found in the discourses of him who was 
the Word of God: and who shall dare to call that 
which he did, appealing to base passion? 

"To accuse the minister of Ulster of 'getting up' 
these affections, is as rational as to suspect physi- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 501 

cians of bringing an epidemic. The course taken 
by a Lancet, in charging them with rascality, re- 
minds me of what happened to a relative of my own, 
in a large English town, in 1832, when he was mob- 
bed and pelted for spreading the cholera. The min- 
isters were at first terrified by the affections, and be- 
came reconciled to them only after much evidence 
that, amid them — they at first thought, in spite of 
them — the Lord was manifesting his regenerating 
power in a way never seen in Ireland before. 

" The popular speech now became affected by the 
feeling that the revival was a visitation from the 
hand of God, in the same sense as an epidemic. The 
common mind did not care to sift second causes in 
the one case more than in the other, but passed 
through them to the instinctive conclusion, that no 
matter to what extent they were employed, they did 
not originate and could not direct the visitation. In 
common parlance, a person 'affected' was a 'case;' 
being under conviction was being 'very bad;' find- 
ing peace was becoming 'better;' and so all the ex- 
pressions describing sickness and recovery were 
adopted. But, notwithstanding this, the reforma- 
tion of manners and morals proceeded with rapid 
steps. Each fresh convert became a soldier fighting 
against sin; the boldness of habitual transgressors 
forsook them ; the public mind became pervaded with 
a conviction that God was directly dealing with his 
fallen creatures, for their salvation. 
43 



502 PREDICTIONS 

" The effect of teaching by facts instead of by 
words, was daily growing plainer. The primary les- 
sons of Christ's ministry, ' Ye mnst be born again,' 
so hard to write upon the convictions of a commu- 
nity by mere language, now became part of the pop- 
ular perceptions. A hundred cases of change from 
wicked to holy lives, taking place before every man's 
eye, among his neighbors and kinsfolk, made him 
feel that salvation from sin was not a dream, and 
preparation for heaven not a death-bed ceremony. 
In one thing all the dispensations agree; the minis- 
try of the prophets, that of John, of Jesus, and of 
the Apostles, all make God's first call to man, re- 
gent I Even in theory this had passed from the 
sight of many Christians ; and books, not very old, 
may be found, in which men well placed in God's 
Church, do not know where to fix repentance in 
Christian life, at the beginning, middle, or end. But 
the voice of Christ, and of his own messengers, ' Re- 
pent and believe the gospel,' was re-echoed by every 
case of conversion which occurred, till, clear as day, 
the correspondence between the word written and 
the work wrought gave to theologians the clear con- 
ception, to the populace the prompt instinct, that the 
foundation of the Spirit's work in the soul of man is 
laid in repentance and faith — repentance from dead 
works, and faith toward God : that the high office of 
Christ enthroned is ' as a Prince and a Saviour to 



OF THE PROPHETS. 503 

give repentance to Israel and remission of sins.' " — 
Arthur. 

[V. 8. And there followed another angel] — • 
This is another one of God's messengers or agents, 
which has made its appearance since the founding 
of the great European and American Bible Societies. 
This Angel or agent of God, began to go forth about 
A. D., 1845. Since that time, this angel has been 
known by the names of the " Christian Alliance ; " 
"The Foreign Evangelical Society;" "The Ameri- 
can Protestant Society ; " and now, " The American 
and Foreign Christian Union." This Angel, or So- 
ciety has done more to call public attention to the 
corrupt and morally fallen condition of this spiritual 
Babylon, than had been done before for three hun- 
dred years. 

[Saying Babylon is fallen, is fallen] — This is uni- 
versally understood among Protestants to be a pre- 
diction concerning Rome : and it is certain, that the 
Jewish Rabbins, before the Christian era, represented 
Rome under the title of Babylon. And this is even 
now true of Rome, Pagan and Papal, Political and 
Spiritual. Rome is twice fallen ; twice dead, politi- 
cally and spiritually, though not yet plucked up by 
the roots. It is endeavoring, however, as we have 
shown, to give its remaining power unto the Image 
of the Beast, by becoming a component part of it. 
It is now in Europe, as well as this country, a king- 
dom divided against itself, and, therefore, according 



504 PREDICTIONS 

to infallible Wisdom will be finally and forever over- 
thrown, even that great city, contrasted with the 
Holy City, in the XI chapter of this book. 

[Because she made all nations drink of the wine 
of the wrath of her fornication] — Here the reason is 
given why Rome is twice fallen. Sin is the reproach 
and ruin of any people. Idolatry is emphatically 
called sin. The sin of Ahab, and the sin of Jero- 
boam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, 
was Idolatry; and he caused Israel to turn away 
from the true God, to commit Idolatry, which, in 
the text before us, is metaphorically called fornica- 
tion; because it is illicitly rendering that to Idols 
which alone belongs to God. She first made all na- 
tions, under her control, drink the wine, the deceit- 
ful and intoxicating wine of her Pagan idolatry ; and 
afterward, of her Papal Idolatry. 

Wine is used metaphorically to represent doctrine ; 
many of her doctrines are the very opposite of the 
truth of God: the doctrine of the devil. Therefore 
her wine is a mocker ; promising happiness, but bring- 
ing reproach. And her strong drink is raging ; prom- 
ising prosperity, but bringing eternal ruin. Her 
» wine is not from the grapes of the uncursed Eden ; 
but from the bitter fruits of her sister Sodom ! 

[And a third angel followed them] — By the Bible, 
the first of these three angels, or messengers, or 
agents of God on earth, the everlasting Gospel, was 
preached unto all nations. By the second angel, the 



OF THE PROPHETS. 505 

Protestant Christian Alliance, the fallen, corrupt, 
and idolatrous character of Papal Rome, Spiritual 
Babylon, is shown more fully to the world, because 
of increased light, than at any former period. All 
these events have occurred since the rise of the two- 
horned Beast, the United States government. 

It is my opinion, that the third angel which followed 
them, has not yet fully accomplished, though he has 
commenced, his work of reform among men; saying 
with a loud voice, speaking in a language not to be 
misunderstood, if any man worship the Beast, rev- 
erence and obey the laws of Pagan Borne, whose 
practical and principal maxim was, " Might .is Bight," 
the same shall drink of the wrath of God: or, if any 
man worship the image of the Beast, reverence and 
obey the laws of Papal Rome, whose practical maxim 
has been the same as that of her Pagan parent: 
For we have shown that the Pagan and Papal Cor- 
porations were made as nearly alike as possible, by 
Constantine the Great; and therefore, the one is the 
very image of the other. They sustain the relation 
of cause and effect to each other. 

And hence, both Pagan and Papal Rome have, both 
by precept and example, insisted on the right to ex- 
terminate by bloody wars, or the bloodier Inquisition, 
all who oppose them, or barely refuse to submit to 
their political or priestly dictation, which we have 
shown to be an Image to the Beast; and all this is also 
true of the Southern Confederacy. And this is the 



506 PREDICTIONS 

standing rule of the Papal Corporation to this day, 
for the General Council of Trent, which was the last 
of these infallible conventions which was ever held 
for the purpose of expressing the mind of the Beast, 
did enact and announce to the world, what it never 
has annulled. This assembly in its second session, 
" enjoined the extermination of heretics by the sword, 
the fire, the rope, and all other means, when it could 
be done with safety." If any man confess by his 
words or works, that he is an obedient servant of this 
Beast, or his image, the Southern Confederacy, he 
must suffer the dreadful consequences announced by 
this angel; for by him, the mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken it. 

[V. 10. The same shall drink of the wine of the 
wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture 
into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tor- 
mented with fire and brimstone in the presence of 
the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb] — 
Those who have willingly and willfully drunk of the 
intoxicating wine of idolatry or spiritual fornication, 
political Idolatry, as well as those who put this accursed 
cup to their neighbor's mouth, shall drink of the wine 
of the wrath of God. The legal or executive judg- 
ment, in my humble opinion, began with the going 
forth of this third angel A. D. 1815. The strongest 
evidences of the divine indignation, is the stirring of 
the hearts of men to war, as a means of summary 
punishment and execution of nations for their sins, 



OP THE PEOPHETS. 507 

and to prepare the way for his peaceful kingdom in 
the world. War, famine, and pestilence, »re evi- 
dences and executioners of the divine indignation, 
and are the three brothers and sons of destruction ! 

[Which is poured out without mixture into the cup 
of his indignation.] — The disapprobation of God, is 
now in A. D. 1860 about to be revealed from heaven 
in a remarkable manner, against all ungodliness and 
unrighteousness of men ; and especially against those 
who hold the truth, and yet hold it in union vvith 
unrighteousness, even the basest of sins — Slavery 
and idolatry. According to the signs of the times, 
and the indications of this prophecy, God is about to 
enter into executive judgment with the nations, and 
shake terribly the earth. 

The first angel, the Bible, the messenger of God 
to the nations, has oalled all men everywhere to re- 
pent, and obey the Gospel, in view of this executive 
judgment day. 

And the second angel, or Divine messenger, the 
Christian Alliance, lifted up its voice long and loud 
to all Papal Corporations, as far as possible, to come 
out of spiritual Babylon, for she was fallen — fallen, 
corrupt, cruel, and unjust. 

And the third angel followed them and has declared 
that those who refuse to repent and believe the Gospel, 
and turn away from dumb idols, and serve the living 
God, after having been so solemnly warned by the 
two former angels ; that in justice to the divine gov- 



508 PREDICTIONS 

eminent, God would give them over to hardness of 
heart, and a reprobate mind, that they might believe 
a lie as those do who believe Slavery to be a Divine 
institution, that the same shall drink of the wine of 
the wrath of God, which is poured out without mix- 
ture, into the cup of his indignation ; and he shall be 
tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of 
the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb even 
in this life. Whatever others may think of this fire 
and brimstone, I think it is used in this passage, as 
the emblem for gunpowder and fire arms, the means 
to be used in putting down the present rebellion. 
This prediction is now being fulfilled in our own na- 
tion. Are fire and brimstone being used ? Is the pre- 
diction then fulfilling ? Here the prophecy of Ezekiel 
is fulfilling in regard to this nation and the Southern 
Confederacy. 

" And I will call for a sword against him [the South- 
ern Confederacy,] throughout all my mountains, saith 
the Lord God : every man's sword shall be against his 
brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence 
and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his 
bands, and upon the many people that are with him, 
an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and 
brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanc- 
tify myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many 
nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord." 

[And he shall be tormented]— Every one who loves 
not the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity'; and the evi 



OF THE PEOPHETS. 509 

dence of the insincerity of such a one shall be seen 
in his forehead or hand; for by his words or works, 
he will be condemned or justified. 

If this is only a figure of speech, or merely com 
parative punishment, then the reality must, in the 
necessity of the case, be greater, for it is a universal 
rule to compare the less with the greater ; as hot as 
fire — as white as snow — as cold as ice. Then fire, 
snow, and ice, possess the qualities inherent to each 
in a greater degree, than those things compared with 
them. 

Therefore, if the torment, which the incorrigibly 
impenitent shall eternally endure, and it will be for 
God alone to judge who he is, be not fire and brim- 
stone, then it will be a sorer punishment, and the 
smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and 
ever. 

That the term smoke is used by metonomy, for evi- 
dence or testimony, will appear evident to any one 
on a moment's reflection. So the testimony of their 
torment, who are finally impenitent, will ascend up 
continually, forever and ever, so as to be seen by the 
holy angels, all the heavenly host, and in the presence 
of the Lamb. And in all this there will doubtless be 
infinite wisdom and goodness displayed; as this ex- 
emplary punishment will be to the heavenly hosts, 
what the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah has 
been to the probationary mortals of earth. And so 
likewise putting this rebellion down with fire and 



510 PREDICTIONS 

brimstone will teach the nation a solemn lesson. 
" I will therefore put you in remembrance," says St. 
Jude, " though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, 
having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, 
afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the 
angels which kept not their first estate, but left their 
own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains 
under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 
Even as Sodom and Gromorrah, and the cities about 
them, in like manner giving themselves over to for- 
nication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth 
for an example, suffering the vengeance of Eternal 
fire." 

So these idolators, or spiritual fornicators, are set 
forth for an examplo ; the smoke of their torment as- 
cendeth up forever and ever, as a warning to the holy 
angels, the heavenly probationers ; for those angels 
which fell, must have been in a probationary state ; 
and we have no evidence that this is not still the 
condition of the holy angels, and that this condition 
may not eternally continue to exist. 

This prophecy is now being fulfilled, in 1860, in 
that God is causing the Beast, the Papal Corporation, 
and the Antichrist, to destroy each other : for " every 
man's sword is against his brother," in the seat of 
the Beasts, the country which had once the " mark 
of his name," power, government; the Roman Po- 
litical and Papal Empire. 

[V. 12. Here is the patience of the saints: here 



OF THE PROPHETS. 511 

are they that keep the commandments of God, and 
the faith of Jesus] — Patience is a virtue compre- 
hending all minor virtues ; here is the contrast be- 
tween those who have the patience of the saints, and 
those who have had no patience with the government 
of God, or with the failings or faults of their fellow- 
men ; and therefore have lived and died in rebellion. 
The patience of the saints enables them to believe all 
things which God requires ; to hope for all he has 
promised ; to love all he has made ; and to do all he 
commands : here are they that keep the com- 
mandments of God, as contained in the Old Tes- 
tament, and the faith of Jesus Christ, as set forth in 
the New Testament, whether they be called Jews or 
Christians. 

I can not leave this subject without suggesting, 
that this third angel, will be a society of true Chris- 
tians, into which will be gathered all who are opposed 
to war, unless it be absolutely for defense, and that 
it will be made a test of membership, in this peaceful 
fraternity, to admit no one, who would disobey God, 
to obey men, by going to an aggressive war for any 
pretext whatever. For although this angel ushers in 
the executive judgment day, God will make his ene- 
mies their own executioners. 

[V. 13. And I heard a voice from heaven, saying 
unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the 
Lord, from henceforth] — In the eleventh verse we have 
the never-failing promise of God, as to the doom of 



512 PREDICTIONS 

the finally impenitent, and especially of those who wor- 
ship the Beast, by doing those things which the Beast 
commands, rather than obey God; and doing the 
things which his image requires, to the neglect, or 
rejectioD of the faith of Jesus, the Gospel system of 
doctrines and duties, precepts and promises, of which 
Jesus Christ is the original author ; and he will per- 
form whatever he has therein threatened, or promised, 
against whosoever worship the Beast, or receive the 
mark of his name — the mark, sign, or evidence of 
having the name or being under the dominion of the 
Beast or his image; through whom the old Serpent, 
the Devil, exercises his power, and requires sub- 
mission to his Laws among the children of diso- 
bedience, and rebellion. 

But in the passage before us, we have the voice 
of Truth, the heavenly promise, in regard to the 
happy condition of those who have lived and died 
the true and faithful servants of God, saying, "Bless- 
ed are the dead luliich die in the Lord" 

This blessed promise was announced by a solemn 
voice from heaven, as the information about to be 
given was of the utmost importance to the faith, 
hope, and happiness of the people of God ; and the 
Apostle is to record, to torite what is said, that it 
may be read, and heard, and heeded, not as doubtful 
tradition, but the everlasting truth of God. The 
Loyal Soldier feels that he has God, right, and truth, 
on his side : and therefore he is borne above the 



OF THE PROPHETS. 513 

disheartening fears that trouble the guilty minds of 
wretched men. 

[Blessed are the dead] — They are not extinct ; 
they are not annihilated ; they are only separated 
from us by the veil of invisibility ; they are happy ; 
even happier than when in the fleshly form ; for they 
have only departed from their earthly tabernacles, 
and are clothed upon by their spiritual house from 
heaven, which is prepared, as we have before stated, 
at the instant the Soul leaves the body ; which the 
spirit enters, and departs from earth to be present 
with Christ, and the glorified saints in heaven, which 
is far better. Therefore all such are happy in the 
company of their Lord and elder brethren, the Pa- 
triarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles ; and the holy 
company of Martyrs, who have died for the Lord ; 
in cruel wars and bloody persecutions ; but these 
are just as happy as those, although they die in the 
Lord, in obedience to the Lord in the defense of 
his righteous government, in these woful times, 
when a man is called to test his faith by a martyr's 
death. Hence such are happy, because they are 
taken away from the evils which come upon the 
earth, and because they enjoy a lively and conscious 
state of blessedness in the presence of their glorified 
Lord and Master ; and in the joyful recognition of 
their friends in heaven. 

[Which die in the Lord] — In the favor of the 
Lord ; for living and dying in the loving and obed- 



514 PREDICTIONS 

ient service of the Lord. He that would die the 
death of the righteous, must live the life of the 
righteousness. 1. They are happy in the conscious 
faith that they die in the cause of God. 2. They 
die under a consciousness of the approving smile of 
the Lord. 3. They die in the glorious hope, which 
is full of immortality, that they shall live and reign 
forever and ever in the kingdom of God. 

[Yea saith the Spirit] — The Holy Ghost promptly 
confirms the promise, which emanated from the in- 
visible voice from heaven, so that by the word of two 
immutable witnesses, the promise is confirmed, and 
the reason given why those who die in the Lord are 
happy from henceforth ; from the time of their happy 
death ; no labors of body or mind, tribulation, or 
distress, shall disturb the happiness of their heavenly 
rest. 

[And their works do follow them] — Those whom 
we have been instrumental in converting to Christ, 
are our works in the Lord ; they are our husbandry 
in the Lord ; and they are the works which 
do follow us ; do walk in the steps of our faith ; 
follow us as we follow Christ, and they have been 
led to this by our Godly precepts, and pious exam- 
ples. And after we have died happy in the Lord, 
they will follow us across the Jordan of Death, and 
hail us happy in our heavenly homes. 

It was, and is the doctrine, fully and clearly in- 
culcated by the Rabbins, the ancient Jewish teachers, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 515 

that as soon as the souls of the just departed from 
this life, they ascended immediately to heaven; and 
the same personification is observed, in their writ- 
ings, as that in the text under consideration. 

" Come and see. If a man observe a precept of 
the law, that work ascends to God, and says, such a 
one performed me. But if a man trangress the 
law, that sin ascends to the holy, blessed God, and 
says, I come from such a one, who perpetrated me. 

" This and that hast thou done, in such a place, 
on such a day ; and each man shall subscribe this 
with his own hand, and not only this, but he shall 
acknowledge the sentence brought against him is 
most just." The meaning of this appears plainly to 
be, that the works of good and bad men follow them 
to the judgment-seat of Christ, at the last day, or 
final judgment ; and every man will be rewarded 
accordingly as his works have been in this world. 

This prediction, Blessed are the dead who die in 
the Lord, is now being fulfilled in this present war, 
and is evidently revealed for the comfort of 
the faithful; for whosoever is fighting to maintain 
this government, is a servant of his country, and a 
servant of the Lord, and therefore, where I am, there 
shall my servants be also. 

14. And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and 
upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, 
having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand 
a sharp sickle. 



516 PREDICTIONS 

[And I looked and behold a white cloud] — A cloud 
is a collection of particles of water, generated from 
the vapors of the Earth, so as to become visible to 
the eye. Water is the emblem of people ; but a 
cloud is a multitude of waters ; therefore it is 
the emblem of a great multitude of people. It 
being a white cloud, signifies white people, or people 
assembled for a wise and pure purpose. This I be- 
lieve signifies the Loyal people of the United States, 
united together for the vindication and defense of their 
righteous government ! 

[And upon the cloud one sat like the Son of 
Man] — The Gne like the son of Man is the U. S. 
Government. The people are the cloud that uphold 
the government. But how is this Government like 
the Son of man ? We answer in many ways, in all 
its departments, legislative, judiciary, and executive ; 
as also for the very purpose for which under God, it 
Was brought into existence. We have to compare 
the character of things, in order to know or perceive 
their coincidence or disagreement. What then are 
some of the most obvious traits of character coinci- 
dent between this government and the Son of man ? 

1. The Son of man came as the Saviour of the 
world, bringing glad tidings of great joy unto the 
people. So the United States government was 
brought into existence by the providence of God, to 
be the Saviour of the nations, and an asylum for the 
oppressed of all people. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 517 

2. But the Son of man came to set up his govern- 
ment in the days of kings, and they sought the 
young child's life to destroy it. So of this govern- 
ment, it came into existence under regal oppression, 
and kings also sought its destruction, in the days 
of its infancy. 

3. The government of the Son of man was accord- 
ing to the law of God. So it has for the most part 
been the rule of action for this government. 

4. The Government of the Son of man was de- 
signed to be aggressive, and finally to overthrow 
whatsoever things are wrong in all the world. So 
it was the object of this government to throw oif the 
yoke of oppression from all mankind. 

5. The Son of man came to be the light of the 
world and to do good of every possible sort to all men. 
So it is the object of this government to educate and 
enlighten all classes, and extend equal rights to all 
men. 

6. The Son of man was betrayed by one of his 
own household. So was this government betrayed 
by those who occupied the highest chamber in the 
house of the Nation. 

7. The enemies of the Son of man have often 
been they of his own household. So it has been 
with this government. 

8. It was a special part of the mission of the Son 
of man to proclaim liberty to the slaves and deliver- 
ance to the captives. So it is of the United States 

44 



518 PREDICTIONS 

of America, to proclaim liberty by the President's 
Emancipation Proclamation. 

9. But finally the Son of man has all power over 
all his enemies, whether they be hidden or avowed, 
and, unless they submit to him, he will miserably 
destroy them. So it is with this government, it has 
complete power over all its enemies whether hostile 
Rebels, or secret sympathisers ; whether home or 
foreign foes ; and will bring them to submit to his 
legal requirements, or crush them out of existence. 

[Having on his head a Golden Crown] — A Grolden 
Crown is the symbol of the highest honor, splendor, 
dignity and power. And is not this true of this 
government ? What other government has ever 
acted more honorably with its people ? What gov- 
ernment has a greater renown than this govern- 
ment ? What government ever evinced greater 
dignity, than has been manifest in this nation, 
by a million of men, hasting at its bidding to its 
rescue, in the dreadful day of danger ? What gov- 
ernment has in the days of war ever developed so 
great a power, legal, financial, and agricultural, 
mechanical, commercial and military ? 

[And in his hand a sharp Sickle] — The emblem 
of supreme power over all his enemies, who are as 
completely under his control, as the harvest field is 
before its reapers. The sickle is sharp, signifying 
how certainly and completely the work will be done. 
Is it now being thus done in our own land ? 



OF THE PROPHETS. 519 

[Y. 15. And another angel came out of the temple, 
crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the 
cloud, Thrust in thy sickle and reap : for the time 
is come for thee to reap ; for the harvest of the 
earth is ripe.] Although all judgment, probative, 
executive, and retributive, are committed to the Son ; 
yet these events take place at an appointed time, to 
execute the judgments which God has decreed. 

[And another angel came out of the Temple] — 
This prophecy refers to our own country and gov- 
ernment, and this present war between the friends 
of slavery and the lovers of liberty. The angel 
or agent which the prophet saw come out of the 
Temple was Abraham Lincoln, the President of the 
United States. The White House or Capitol is the 
Temple to this Nation. 

[ Crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the 
Cloud] — We have already shown what was meant 
by the cloud, and him that sat on it ; he is the U. S. 
government. The president then called with a .loud 
voice, when seven hundred thousand men heard him, 
and came to reap and thresh the evil political harvest 
that had grown on Uncle Sam's great plantation. 

[Thrust in thy Sickle, and reap — This was the 
proclamation from the commander-in-chief of this 
nation to begin to reap the Rebellion out of the way 
of the government. The sickle is the symbol of war. 
As reaping is a tedious, but certain method of cutting 
down a harvest; so it also implies the slowness and 



520 PREDICTIONS 

certainty with which the reaping of this Rebellion 
will be accomplished. 

[For the time is come for thee to reap] — Here I 
will give the reader the exact language I used in re- 
gard to this event long before the war began. "When 
this time is to be I do not feel that I can venture to 
say with certainty, as it is an unfulfilled prophecy in 
1860 ; but as these angels, mentioned in this chapter, 
have followed each other in regular succession, at 
intervals of about thirty years, I therefore conclude 
that the mission of the third angel, mentioned in 
this chapter, will be fully accomplished by 1876." 

The earth here is used metaphorically for the evils 
of political governments. They are the world's 
great harvest, and must be reaped out of the way, to 
make room for the Millennial kingdom. And it is a 
ripe harvest, ready to be cut down when the reaping 
time comes. God dpes not do his work prematurely: 
these are fully ripe ; have accomplished all the pur- 
poses which he has permitted, by which he has often 
made the wrath of man to praise him : but now, as 
the cup of their iniquity is full, the remainder of 
their wrath he restrains by reaping this harvest of 
the earth, which in the appointed time is fully ripe. 

[For the harvest of the Earth is ripe] — That 
political harvest, slavery, which had been long sown, 
and growing through successive ages, had at last 
fully matured ; and it is now ripe. And I said to 
men in the South, long before the war commenced > 



OF THE PROPHETS. 521 

that if I was right in rnj interpretations of prophecy, 
that there will not be a man found in the United 
States to buy or sell a slave against A. D., 1876. 
So far I have certainly shown a clear coincidence 
between the teachings of prophecy and the records 
of history ; and therefore I am satisfied that I am 
right in my interpretations. 

[V. 16. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in 
his sickle on the earth ; and the earth was reaped] — 
He maketh the clouds his chariot ; he rideth upon 
the wings of the wind ; a fire goeth before him ; it 
is very tempestuous round about him ; it shall de- 
vour his enemies. " For behold ! the (executive 
judgment) day cometli, that shall burn as an oven ; 
and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, 
shall be stubble — of no more use or value than stub- 
ble, but to be taken out of the way of the Millennial 
dispensation. And the day that cometh shall burn 
them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave 
them neither root nor branch — (parent nor offspring.) 
And ye shall tread down the wicked ; for they shall 
be ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day that 
I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts." — Mai. iv. 

[And the earth was reaped ] — How suddenly God 
executes his judgments ! and he is no respecter of 
the forms or names of political governments ; he wiil 
suddenly reap them all out of his way, to make place 
for his own kingdom, which is an everlasting king- 
dom, and his dominion, which shall have no end. 



5 22 PREDICTIONS 

This prophecy is describing tne same events, in 
m y opinion, which Joel announces in the third chap- 
ter of his prophecy : 

"Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare 
war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war 
draw near; let them come up: Beat your plough- 
shares into swords, and your pruninghooks mo 
spears ; let the weak say I - strong. Assemble 
Jem-selves, and come, all ye heathen, and.gatner 
yourselves together round about: thither cause thy 
Lightv ones to come down, Lord. Let the heathen 
be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehosha- 
phat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen 
round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest 
i3 ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full 
the fets overflow; for their wickedness za great. 
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision ; for 
"the day of the Lord k near in the valley of decision. 
The sun and the moon shall be tokened, and the 
stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lokd also 
shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jeru- 
S alem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake . 
but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and th. 
streno-th of the children of Israel. So shall ye know 
ffiat lam the Lokd your God dwelling in Zion, my 



holy mountain." 

The government has fulfilled this great prophecy , 
first, as a military necessity, reaping slavery out ot 
the wav, by the Emancipation Proclamation; and 



OF THE PROPHETS. 523 

then as a legal and moral necessity, He is refining 
by the appliances of war, the rebellious friends of 
slavery, those that produce this evil harvest. 

[ Y. 17. And another angel came out of the temple 
which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle] — 
All truth is consistent ; so are all the prophecies of 
the Old and New Testaments when they relate to the 
same events. This angel represents many in one ; 
or, in other words, is a representative of the angels 
that go, at the executive judgment day, to gather 
together the elect from one end of heaven to the 
other ; and gather up the tares when the harvest of 
the earth shall be reaped, and gather them in bun- 
dles to be burned ; and gather his wheat into the 
garner, the Heavenly Jerusalem. 

The first temple was an earthly or political tem- 
ple, as we have seen in the above interpretation. 
This angel coming out of the temple which is in 
heaven, signifies that an agent of power from the 
Church of Christ, has also a sharp sickle to reap the 
evil of slavery from the fields of the Church, Tvhich 
was as great an evil to it, as the harvest of the earth 
was to the political government of the nation. 

This is now being fulfilled in the present action 
of the general conference of the M. E. Church, May 
A. D. 1864, which is now one of the most powerful 
Angels or agents in Christendom. This verse de- 
scribes the action of the delegates of the Church ; 



524 PREDICTIONS 

and the next verse shows that this action will be 
highly approved and loudly applauded. 

[V. 18. And another angel came out from the 
altar, which had power over fire ; and cried with a 
loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, 
Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the cluster 
of the Vine of the Earth ; for her grapes are fully 
ripe] — In all probability, this is the same angel 
mentioned in the eighth and ninth chapters of this 
book, which stood by the golden altar of burnt offer- 
ings, to offer that incense to God, which represents 
the prayers of the saints ; and this angel represents 
here, what we intimated in those places, the true 
ministers of the golden altar, the Gospel dispensa- 
tion, who by this time, have fully preached the Gos- 
ple in all the world, to every creature, as a witness unto 
all the nations, and now unite then voices, and cried 
with a loud voice to him that had the sharp sickle, 
saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the 
clusters of the Vine of the Earth : for the political 
evils in the government — is the Vine which has pro- 
duced these Papal Corporations, these branches and 
clusters ; and her grapes are fully ripe. 

We have labored as faithful vinedressers, under 
the directions of the great Husbandman, and we 
looked that it should bring forth good grapes ; but 
it brought wild grapes, which are sour and poison- 
ous ; and they are fully ripe, so that we are able to 
judge correctly of their quality. "Yet I had planted 



OF THE PROPHETS. 525 

thee a noble vine, wholly of a right seed ; how then 
art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange 
vine unto me ?" — Jer. ii : 21. 

u For their vine is now of the vine of Sodom, and 
of the fields of Gomorrah ; their grapes are grapes 
of gall, their clusters are bitter, even bitter as worm- 
wood, and their wine (their doctrine) is the poison of 
dragons." — Deut. xxxii : 32. 

[Which had power over fire] — The word fire oc- 
curs sixteen times in this book. In this passage 1 
think it signifies the holy Scriptures. Fire is one 
of the four elements recognized by the ancient phil- 
osophers, which not only affords light and heat, but 
is an agent whereby we test the purity or impurity 
of metals. Therefore the word of God is compared 
to fire ; like fire it is powerful to warm, melt, and 
purify the nations ; to refine from the dross, burn up 
the chaff and consume the stubble ; It is full of life 
and energy. The Apostle Paul says that every 
man's doctrine shall be tried by fire, that is by the 
light of the word of the Lord, to know whether it is 
corrupt, cruel, and unjust, or pure, true, sound and 
solid. 

[V. 19. And the angel thrust in his sickle into 
the earth, and gathered the Yine of the Earth, and 
cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of 
God] — God destroys first all the political evils of gov- 
ernments under the metaphor of a ripe harvest-field, 
and then immediately executes vengeance on all cor- 
15 



526 PREDICTIONS 

rupt Ecclesiastical powers, doctrines, and Papal Cor- 
porations, under the metaphor of the Vine of the 
Earth ; the Antichrist ; as opposed to, or in the place 
of, Christ, the True Vine ; and thus, when the execu- 
tive judgment day comes, all things shall be put un- 
der his feet, and he shall reign without a rival, in all 
the world's wide dominion, throughout the pure, 
peaceable, and glorious years of the Millennium. 

. [Y. 20. And the wine-press was trodden without 
the city, and blood came out of the wine-press, even 
unto the horse's bridles, by the space of a thousand 
and six hundred furlongs] — It would seem as if Di- 
vine wisdom would demonstrate, to the last degree of 
certainty, who is meant by the Vine of the Earth, 
by foreshowing where this wine-press is situated, and 
where these clusters of bitter grapes are trodden. 

The city mentioned in this text, in my judgment, 
is synonymous with the Great City; which we have 
noticed in our annotations on the eleventh chapter. 
And this Vine of the Earth, instead of the Vine 
of Heaven, had its roots in the great city, Pagan 
Rome, now Papal Rome, which sent out its branches 
through the world ; but in modern times her branches 
have been pruned away, and her boughs and clusters 
are found in a much smaller compass, and will be still 
more circumscribed, before the executive judgment 
day ends, A. D. 1876. 

Any person who will look at a map of Europe, 
will see a small province, having The City, or Rome, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 527 

for its capital or seat of empire. Around Rome, 
and northward as far as the River Po, is a cluster of 
States, entitled the " States of the Church." Now 
these States exactly answer the description of the 
cluster of the vine, for they are a number of things 
of the same kind, situated near to each other, or grow- 
ing together. Now it is stated in geographical works, 
that the States of the Church, or St. Peter's pat- 
rimony, extends from Rome, The City, to the River 
Po — and that the distance is two hundred Roman or 
Italian miles, or a thousand and six hundred furlongs. 

"Now," says Dr. A. Clarke, "if this be so, the 
coincidence is certainly surprising, and worthy of 
deep regard." Any person who has an accurate and 
well-defined map of Europe, where the scale of miles 
is given, will learn by actual measurement, that the 
distance from the City of Rome across the " States 
of the Church," to the River Po, is just 200 miles 
or 1600 furlongs. From all these circumstances 
Papal Rome must be meant; for the Papal Corpo- 
ration we have found to be the Beast, the Vine of 
the Earth, the very Root, from which this cluster of 
States has as naturally grown as clusters of grapes 
grow from the vine. 

In this chapter are nine important prophecies. 
Christ is seen under two symbols. That of a Lamb, 
representing his character as our great High Priest; 
and that of one sitting on a White Cloud, the emblem 
of his Regal dignity and power. Seven angels are 



528 PREDICTIONS 

seen going forth as messengers of God to execute his 
will. The voice of the Invisible is four times heard 
to confirm these prophecies. And I here repeat my 
opinion, that all the prophecies in this chapter will 
be fulfilled in about twenty years, from 1860, if ac- 
complished, as these revelations have been, in regular 
chronological order. 

This I said years ago, and we see now that these 
Revelations are being fulfilled to the letter in regular 
order. And now the indications seem clear, that all 
these prophecies, in this Chapter, will be completely 
fulfilled by A. D. 1875, the characters, actions and 
events of this Chapter, have occupied the first vial 
period, from A. D. 1680 to 1860, and part of the 
Second vial period up to 1864. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 529 



CHAPTER XV. 

REVELATION, CHAP. XV. 
PART FOURTH, PERIOD FOURTH— Continued. 

This Chapter reveals an Angel coming down from 
heaven to declare the certain and severe punishment 
of the enemies of truth, and pure religion, from the 
present time, to the end of this Period, A. D. 2880. 

Orders are given by a great voice, from the Temple 
in heaven, to the seven Angels, which are elsewhere 
called the seven eyes or seven Spirits of God, to pour 
out their Vials.* This appears to have reference to 
the ancient custom of anointing kings. And thus 
Divine Providence anoints seven successive powers, 
through which, by natural and ordinary means, to 
punish and destroy his enemies ; False Religion, and 
a corrupt and wicked government in the world. 

CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL ANNOTATIONS. 

[V. 1. And I saw another sign in heaven, great 
and marvelous, Seven Angels having the seven last 
plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God]- 
In the twelfth chapter, the Prophet announces that 
he saw a great sign or wonder, a Woman clothed with 
the Sun; and then another sign or wonder a great 
Red Dragon ; and now this is the third sign or won- 
der, which the prophet has seen in the world's grand 
panorama ; and this he calls great and marvelous ; 
Seven Angels, having the seven last plagues. 



530 PREDICTIONS 

It is remarkable that seven angels, and only seven, 
seem to be employed to accomplish the purposes of 
God in regard to the affairs of this world. We no- 
ticed, in the last chapter, that only seven angels were 
employed in bringing about the fulfillment of those 
important prophecies, concerning the enemies of his 
Church and government, represented under the em- 
blems of a ripe harvest and vintage, whose clusters 
were fully ripe. These events were represented in a 
concise view, stretching out over a vast field of time, 
as I suppose, of more than a thousand years ; of which 
times and events, I apprehend, these seven angels and 
seven plagues are detailed accouflts, and are a 
doubled representation of the seven angels which 
sounded the seven trumpets; so seven angels pour out 
the seven vials. Angels are always represented as the 
agents of Divine Providence, throughout the ampli- 
tudes of creation, going with the celerity of lighting 
to obey the commands of the Almighty. 

[V. 2. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled 
with fire ; and them that had gotten the victory over 
the Beast; and over his image, and over his mark, 
and over the number of his name, stand on the sea 
of glass, having the harps of God] — Sea, as we have 
said, symbolizes a corrupt Church and State union 
government; but when the similitude is qualified by 
glass or crystal, it denotes a clear, pure, and holy 
Church. So in the similitude before us. And min- 
gled with fire, implies that such a Church filled with 



OF THE PROPHETS. 531 

the fire of divine truth, love, and power ; filled with 
the Holy Ghost, the spirit of truth, love, and power. 
Such a Church is a burning fire, and shining light 
in the world. 

And just such a Church as this, we expect to see, 
when the executive judgment day, described in the 
previous chapter, has reaped the Harvest of the Earth, 
and gathered the clusters of the Vine of the Earth, 
and cast them into the wine-press of the wrath of 
God. Then we shall see them that have gotten the 
victory over the Beast, and over his image ; and over 
his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on 
the sea of glass, having the harps of God ! To stand 
on the sea of glass, is to enjoy the privileges, dignity, 
and glory of this high, holy, and joyful heritage of 
God's people, in this Millennial Church. 

[Having the harps of God] — Harps forever in tune, 
time, and harmony, played by hands which shall never 
hang down with sorrow, or hang their harps upon the 
willows of affliction ; because they^have gotten the 
victory over all their oppressors. [The Beast]— he is 
the Pope at Rome ; his image, the men of great sins ; 
his mark, a Papal Corporation, the number of his 
name — he is the Antichrist — each are 6Q6, as we have 
demonstrated in the thirteenth chapter. 

[V. 3. And they sing the song of Moses the ser- 
vant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great 
and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; 
just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints] — The 



532 PREDICTIONS 

song of triumph sung by the host of God's redeemed 
people, after they came through the Red Sea, was 
inspired by Christ, and given to the people by Moses. 
It is but one song*, inspired by Christ, and given 
by Moses, and therefore called the Song of Moses, 
the servant of God, and the Song of the Lamb. And 
this song, in all its spirit and import, will be sung 
by the triumphant host of the Redeemed from the 
Egypt of this world, when the Red Sea, of persecu- 
tion and war shall be dried up, and our last enemy, 
after our last conflict is over, shall be cast into the 
Sea of Fire, at the executive judgment day, as 
Pharaoh and all his host were cast into the Red Sea, 
to arise no more at all to afflict the people of God, 
whether Israelites or Christians. 

[Saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord 
God Almighty]— God's works, in the destruction of 
his enemies, as to the time, the manner, and the 
means, are great and marvelous— great as to the time, 
when most needed ; and marvelous as to the manner 
—suddenly, in a moment, when they were perfectly 
helpless — and as to the means, his own omnipotent 
power through natural causes, which they can not 
gainsay nor resist. 0, my God, may I not be found 
among thine enemies! 

[Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints] 
— Just in all thy judgments against all the workers 
of iniquity ; and true in all thy promises of grace 
and providence to thy people, showing thyself to be 



OP THE PROPHETS. 533 

King of saints ; enacting all their laws, supplying 
abundantly all their wants and defending, protecting, 
and saving them ; but miserably destroying all their 
enemies in thine appointed time, manner, and means, 
which shall most redound to thy glory, and to the 
good of thy people, and the peace of thy kingdom 
forever and ever. Therefore, when we thus consider 
the character and attributes of Jehovah, we see that 
in every step he takes in grace or providence, it is 
in power, justice, and truth; and that his power en- 
ables him always to work according to his wise and 
holy will, in fulfilling his promises to his people, and 
performing his threatenings against his enemies. 

[V. 4. Who shall not fear thee, Lord, and glorify 
thy name? for thou only art holy; for all nations 
shall come and worship before thee ; for thy judg- 
ment are made manifest] — Thy power, glory and 
kingdom. For thou only art holy — for thy- kingdom, 
power, and works are all holy ; for thou wilt destroy 
all that destroyed the earth, and laid waste their 
heritage ; for thou wilt cut off the harvest and the 
vintage of the earth. Therefore, all nations shall 
come and worship before thee ; " And the Lord shall 
be king over all the earth ; in that day shall there be 
one Lord and his name one/' — Zech. xiv : 8. For 
all other kings and kingdoms shall be destroyed, and 
•Jesus Christ shall be king over all the earth ; for thy 
judgments are made manifest ; both the probative and 
executive judgments are everywhere manifest, and 



534 PREDICTIONS 

therefore the nations shall fear God, and keep his 
commandments. 

[V. 5. And after that I looked, and beheld the 
Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony in Heaven 
was opened] — After the Executive Judgment day 
shall have passed, by which the Harvest and Vine of 
the Earth are gathered out of the way, so as not to 
disturb the peaceful times of the people of God, the 
Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony in heaven 
shall be opened; by which I understand the Holy 
City or sanctuary, which was trodden down, will be 
restored to its ancient order, beauty, and glory ; that 
the true Temple service will be reopened ; the woman 
will then come out of the wilderness the second time, 
and bring with her the pure Word of God, symbolized 
by the Tabernacle, because, like the Tabernacle, it 
contains the Testimony of the two witnesses. 

The first Tabernacle contained the Testimony; 
namely, The Two Tables ; Aaron's Rod; the Pot of 
Manna ; the Holy Anointing Oil, etc. ; and Avere the 
symbols of heavenly things and things pertaining to 
the Gospel dispensation ; all bearing testimony to 
the truth, grace, and providence of God, in behalf 
of his word, his institutions, and his long-oppressed 
people. "When this Temple is thus opened, God will 
gather his ancient people from among the nations, 
as he hath foretold by his ancient prophets; and Jews 
and Christians shall be one fold under one shepherd. 

! how I long to see that day, when there shall be 



OF THE PROPHETS. 535 

nothing left to hurt, offend, or destroy, in all the holy 
mountain of the Lord! 

[V. 6. And the Seven Angels came out of the 
Temple, having the seven Plagues, clothed in pure 
and white linen, and having their breasts girded with 
golden girdles] — These Angels came out of the Tem- 
ple, evincing their attention to the service of God, 
and that they will pour out these plagues upon the 
earth, whenever and wherever he directs them. 

They were clothed in pure and white linen — the 
emblems of their purity of motives, and innocence 
of conduct ; which are the only robes that can secure 
eternal protection even to angels. Their habiliments 
were those of the holy priesthood, and were uniform 
with that of the High Priest of our profession, as 
described in the first chapter of this book. 

[V. 7. And one of the four Beasts gave unto the 
Seven Angels seven golden vials full of the wrath 
of God, who liveth forever and ever] — In our notes 
on the fourth chapter, the first and last place where 
the four Beasts are mentioned till now, we gave it as 
our opinion, that these four Beasts symbolize the four 
classes of mankind, and the four characters of gov- 
ernment which would exist from the giving of this 
Revelation to the end of this dispensation. I appre- 
hend, that this Beast is the two horned Beast, or 
Flying Eagle, the United States government, and he 
will give these vials of wrath to angels or agents 
under the divine government and Providence of God ; 



536 PREDICTIONS 

So far the U. S. government has had much to do in 
the pouring out of the first and second vials; for we 
are now only under the pouring of the Second Vial. 

This is the time that Michael, the One who is like 
God, or the Son of man, shall stand up — the great 
Prince which standeth for the children of thy people, 
the true Israel of God ; and there shall be a time of 
trouble, such as never Yfas since there was a nation, 
even to that same time ; for then upon the wicked shall 
the Lord rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an 
horrible tempest. Snares to hold them; for the wicked 
is snared in the work of his own hands. Fire to pun- 
ish them ; for God's wrath is represented under the 
emblem of fire — is poured upon them — and brim- 
stone the fuel to feed this eternal fire ; an horrible 
tempest, to fan these interminable fires of wrath, that 
this cup of the divine indignation may be without 
mitigation; this shall be the portion of their cup. 

Therefore, the wicked shall be driven away in his 
wickedness, and the finally impenitent shall not go 
unpunished, for God will not acquit any who are in- 
corrigibly guilty. 

[V. 8. And the Temple was filled with smoke, 
from the glory of God, and from his power ; and no 
man was able to enter into the Temple till the seven 
Plagues of the seven Angels were fulfilled] — The 
smoke metaphorically represents the evidence of the 
glory of God in his Temple, and the evidence of his 
power in saving those who trust in him, and de- 



OF THE PROPHETS. 537 

stroying those who despise the riches of his grace ; 
which filled the temple so that little or no evidence 
was apparent that he had any dominion on earth. It 
seemed as if God had gone up on high ; that for a 
time he had left the earth to the children of men ; 
and that Satan ruled in the kingdoms of the world. 

But as soon as the seven Angels shall fulfill their 
mission, and the seventh Plague has scourged the 
earth, and purified the Air, and men have learned 
implicit obedience by the things which they have suf- 
fered from their old adversary the Devil, and his 
emissaries ; then shall the Lord come suddenly to his 
Temple, and the evidence of glory, and power, and 
dominion shall appear in his Temple; and from sea 
to sea; and from the rivers to the ends of the earth ; 
and all nations shall come and worship before him ; 
for his judgments are made manifest : for it shall 
then be seen that his Kingdom ruleth over all. 

We will close our observations on this chapter by 
a brief quotation from the learned Calmet : " When 
the High "Priest entered the Holy of Holies, and the 
ordinary priest into the holy place, they always car- 
ried with them a great deal of smoking incense, 
which filled those places with smoke and darkness ; 
which prevented them from considering too atten- 
tively, the parts and ornament of those holy places, 
and thus served to produce an air of majesty in the 
Temple, which none dared to approach without the 
deepest reverence." 



588 PREDICTIONS 

This was designed, no doubt, to symbolize the In- 
visible Majesty of Him who covereth himself with 
darkness, and his pavilion round about him is dark 
waters, and thick clouds of the sky ; and none by 
searching can find out God to perfection ; for at 
most we can know but a part of his ways. At the 
dedication of the ancient Tabernacle and Temple, 
they were filled with a cloud of smoke, which ren- 
dered invisible the Divine Majesty. 

We refer the reader to the " Voice of the Pro- 
phets." We have given merely an epitome of these 
chapters of the Apocalypse, in order to meet the 
demand for which the large work has been abridged. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 539 



CHAPTER XVI 

REVELATION CHAP. XVI. 

PART FOURTH, PERIOD FOURTH.— Continued. 

FIRST VIAL— FROM A. D., 1680 TO 1860. 

This chapter reveals to us the character, actions, 
and events of the First Vial Period. This Vial is 
poured out upon the Earth, the symbol of Political 
Government : signifying the grievous and sore pun- 
ishments upon the Beast and Dragon, wicked and 
idolatrous nations, which should occur under this 
Vial, by influences directed and controled by the in- 
visible power of Divine Providence, whereby he 
makes the wrath of man to praise him, and promotes 
his kingdom in the world : and this has been wonder- 
fully manifest in the past 180 years, as historical evi- 
dence abundantly proves. 

SECOND VIAL— FROM A. D. 1S60 TO 2040. 

The Second Vial is poured out upon the Sea, the 
symbol of corrupt Church and State union, which 
becomes as the blood of a dead man ; signifying the 
deadly punishment, and utter destruction of that 
corrupt, cruel, and unjust power, the Beast, and his 
Image which arose out of the Sea, the result of 



540 PREDICTIONS 

Church and State union ; and is therefore, the off- 
spring of fornication, and will be, according to the 
Divine prediction, utterly and forever overthrown, 
during the present Vial Period, which begins in A. 
D. 1860, and includes 180 years, and will therefore 
end in A. D. 2040. 

THIRD VIAL— FROM A. D. 2040 TO 2220. 

The Third Vial will be poured out upon the Rivers, 
the symbol of nations ; which have served as tribu- 
taries to this corrupt Sea, or union of unjust Eccle- 
siastical and Political Power, giving their people to 
support this corrupt state of things, as certainly as 
rivers give their waters to the seas : signifying, the 
utter destruction of all who in any way give aid and 
comfort to the Beast and False Prophet, the great 
enemies of Christ's Kingdom in the world. This 
Period includes 180 years, from A. D. 2040 to 
2220. 

FOURTH VIAL— FROM A. D. 2220 TO 2400. 

The Fourth Vial will be poured out upon the Sun, 
the symbol of the Christian Religion, or the most 
powerful government in the world; which will be 
among the nations, what the Sun is in the firmament, 
the ruling power of the world ; and it will have power 
to scorch men as with fire. And men will be 
scorched with great heat, and they will blaspheme 
the name of God, which hath power over these 
plagues : and they will not repent to give him glory 



OF THE PROPHETS. 541 

signifying, that the Word of God will be anointed to 
exercise its influence through natural causes and the 
means instituted and appointed in the Gospel, to pu- 
rify, enlighten, and comfort, all who will receive, be- 
lieve, and obey it ; while it will prove the power of 
God unto the destruction of all who neglect, reject, 
or disobey it. Once there were great Political Pow- 
ers in the world, and they had their organizations, 
constitutions, and laws ; and Christians had to sub- 
mit to them, even when they burned men with fire ; 
but soon these will be no more. With a purifying 
power, like a hidden fire, this influence is working its 
results among men, to the overthrow of all things 
wrong in high places, and is perceived to be produc- 
ing its refining changes on all classes of society. 

It appears that all unjust political power will be 
overthrown in America first ; and the whole country 
become a Theocracy, as the Jewish nation, under the 
Law of Moses, in the days of the Judges ; or rather, 
as we are taught by Christ in the Gospel, and by St. 
Paul, that all grievances should be settled by the 
parties concerned, or by arbitration ; or finally before 
the Church, as the last earthly tribunal. 

It is clearly taught in the New Testament, (1 Cor. 
vi: 1-6), that Christians should settle all their cor. ■ 
troversies, both temporal and moral, among them- 
selves, or before the Church, and not before worldly 
courts. All unjust political government was, at the 
first, the result of rebellion against God; and was 
46 



542 PREDICTIONS 

an invasion of Divine prerogative; and originated 
through Satanic influence, from a vain desire on the 
part of man, to be independent of his Maker. It 
results from the influence of the same sinful spirit 
which led to the building of the tower of Babel, and 
has produced the same consequences — confusion, dis- 
union, and enmity among the nations ; and corrup- 
tion, cruelty, and injustice among mankind. Thanks 
be to him who maketh men to be of one mind in a 
house, and meeteth out the destinies of men and na- 
tions, that this curse is doomed to be driven away 
from the world. This will occur from 2220 to 2400, 
in America. 

FIFTH VIAL— FEOM A. D. 2400 TO 2580. 

The Fifth Vial will be poured out upon the seat of 
the Beast or throne of the wild Beast, the Papal 
Government, whose kingdom or empire will be full of 
darkness, or error, in regard to Gospel Government; 
signifying that all kingly and oppressive political 
and ecclesiastical power will be overthrown next 
in Europe, and that the nations will be no longer 
impoverished by burdensome tithes, and overwhelmed 
by national debts, to maintain political rulers in lux- 
ury, pride, and profligacy. This Period includes 
180 years from A. D. 2400 to 2580. 

SIXTH VIAL— FROM A. D. 2580 TO 2760. 

The Sixth Yial will be poured out upon the River 



OF THE PROPHET. 543 

Euphrates, the emblem of Mohammedans, the sym- 
bol of Asia, or the nations of Asia; and the waters 
thereof will be dried up ; signifying that the people 
in all Asia will not be in the way of affecting the Di- 
vine purpose, to overthrow the political powers and 
false religions of all the eastern kingdoms and em- 
pires, and make way for the kings of the East, true 
Christians, to bring back the whole human race to a 
knowledge of their allegiance alone to the Divine 
Government of the Prince of Peace. Eor this an- 
gelic, invisible, and resistless anointing will be of 
God ; and he will put it into the hearts and hands of 
men, to do his will, and acknowledge his right to 
reign alone over them. Thus the kingdoms of this 
world shall again become the kingdom of our God, 
and the inheritance of his Christ. 

Toward the close of this Period, and just before 
all corrupt political kingdoms and powers are over- 
thrown, three unclean spirits, like frogs, on account 
of their unclean or impure characters ; their great 
numbers ; and their influence to produce idleness, 
sensuality, and destruction among mankind — for they 
are spirits of devils working wonders of wickedness 
— will, through wine, whoredom and war, exercise 
their influence to re-establish the old forms of politi- 
cal government ; old systems of reveling and idola- 
trous worship ; and the old practices of incantation 
and false prophecy. And all this will be attempted, 
too, by those who have the stupid idleness of frogs; 



544 PREDICTIONS 

the lawlessness of frogs ; and the shanielessness of 
filthy frogs. But Grod will overrule all this for the 
destruction of his enemies, the good of his people, 
and the glory of his kingdom. He will bring this 
vast army of his enemies as he did the idolatrous 
Canaanites, and apostate Israelites, to the valley of 
Magiddo, or to the Armageddon. These shall be ut- 
terly destroyed, for this is the battle of the great day 
of God Almighty. And thus will he cause the wrath 
of man to praise him, by overruling it to promote 
his glory, by cleansing his Sanctuary, of all who ex- 
alt themselves or oppose his heavenly Kingdom. 
This Period will include 180 years from A. D. 2580 
to 2760. At the close of this Period, which will be 
about 900 years hence, we may suppose that there 
will be an utter overthrow of the enemies of the 
Kingdom of Christ. " Blessed is he that watcheth 
and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and 
they see his shame." 

SEVENTH VIAL— FROM A. D. 2760 TO 2940. 

The Seventh Vial will be poured out upon the Air 
— the symbol of the whole human family- — who, like 
the air, surround the whole world, and, like the 
air, have always been unstable and carried about by 
every impulse that might be brought to bear upon it ; 
and hence, Satan is called the Prince of the Power 
of the Air ; because he has led mankind captive at 
his will, and thus ruled in the hearts of rulers and 



OE THE PROPHET. 545 

people, "the children of disobedience," the children 
of Rebellion. But this state of things will come to 
an end ; for a loud voice was heard out of the Tem- 
ple of Heaven, from the Throne, saying, "It IS 
done ! " — signifying that the influence of Satan, 
through wicked rulers and people, should no more 
disturb the peaceful years of the children of God — 
and it may also signify that the influences which had 
been set to work by the pouring out of the Seven 
Vials, to anoint the powers by which God was work- 
ing out the* destruction of his enemies, and the sal- 
vation of his people, w T ould, under this Vial, com- 
plete their work. 

It is done ! — the conflict which has been carried on 
from age to age, between Right and Wrong, will, 
during this Period, come to an end. It is done ! 
Here ends the Woman's Second sojourn in the wil- 
derness. It is done ! Here end all the corrupt, cruel, 
and unjust Political and Ecclesiastical Governments 
of Time. It is done ! And here ends the influence 
of Satan over the human mind, and will, and affec- 
tions for one thousand years. It is done ! — and with 
this Period ends the 2520 years of the captivity and 
oppression of the Church by Babylon and the Beast. 
It is done ! And by the close of this Period the trans- 
gressors are cut off; the wickedness of the wicked 
has come to an end, and the Sanctuary is cleansed. 
It is done! The Church — the Bride — is prepared and 
adorned for the Bridegroom. It is done ! Behold ! 



546 PREDICTIONS 

the Bridegroom cometh ; go ye out to meet him. Be- 
hold ! I come as a thief, blessed is he that watcheth, 
and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and 
they see his shame ! 

CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL ANNOTATIONS. 

[V. 1. And I heard a great voice out of the tem- 
ple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and 
pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth] 
— The cloud of smoke so obscured the Temple, 
and the Invisible Majesty, that no form or simil- 
itude was to be seen ; and therefore all the Pro- 
phet could know of the Divine Majesty, was the great 
voice which he heard proceeding out of the Temple. 

These Seven Angels were suitably arrayed, all 
standing ready with the vials, the weapons of Divine 
vengeance, to execute the purposes of God upon im- 
penitent transgressors ; but they would do nothing 
until they received a positive command from Gocl, 
declared in such a way as not to be misunderstood. 
In the manifestation of justice or mercy by divine 
agency, there must be a positive command, although 
nothing can be done without the divine permission. 
There are many things which God permits men, as 
moral agents, to perform, for which he afterward 
punishes them, which would be inconsistent with every 
sense of justice, if man was not a moral agent, and 
the subject of moral influence instead of physical 
force. Therefore, God justly punishes men and 



OF THE PROPHETS. 547 

angels for a nonconformity to, or transgression of, 
his laws ; for they might have clone differently, al- 
though they did nothing but what he permitted them 
to do. For example ; he commands men to keep the 
sabbath day holy, and he freely permits us to obey 
or disobey ; and will accordingly reward or punish 
us. And so of all other commands. 

[V. 2. And the first went, and poured out his vial 
upon the earth ; and there fell a noisome and griev- 
ous sore upon the men which had the mark of the 
Beast, and upon them which worshiped his image.] 
— The first angel, in obedience to the Divine Majesty, 
whose mighty voice was heard from the Temple, went 
and poured out his vial ; which symbolizes, that the 
wrath of God, which had been treasured away against 
the day of vengeance, was now poured upon the earth. 
This vial began to be poured out about A. D. 1680, 
and was completed in 180 years — by 1860. It was 
poured out upon the earth; by which we understand, 
political governments. Now if this view is correct, 
we must expect to find a complete coincidence in the 
teachings of prophecy, and the records of history, 
showing that Divine wrath has been poured out, in 
a very special manner, upon political governments in 
this period, producing great changes in them. 

And in order that the reader may have before his 
mind all the leading facts, times, and events of this 
Revelation, w T e will here recapitulate, in chrono- 
logical order, the periods of time implied by the seven 



548 PREDICTIONS 

Seals, the seven Trumpets, and the seven Yials. The 
time required to open the seals, and that period be- 
tween each seal, as we have proved, implied 60 years. 
Therefore, if one seal imply sixty years, then 7 seals 
will imply 7 times 60=420 years. "We have proved 
that a part of the seventh seal period, was a period 
of rest ; the time of which it is said : And there was 
silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. 

The first trumpet, therefore, is introduced, and pre- 
parations begun to be made to sound it, simultaneously 
with the seventh seal period ; and therefore the first 
trumpet begins to sound at the end of the seventh 
seal period, A. D. 420 ; and in sounding occupy a 
period of 180 years. Therefore, if one trumpet oc- 
cupy 180 years, seven trumpets will occupy 7 times 
180=1260 years. Kow if we add 420 and 1260, 
they will equal 1680 years, the end of the trumpet 
periods, A. E>. 1680. And here, then the vial periods 
begin, where the trumpet periods end, as we have 
above stated, and which we shall be able to establish, 
by the coincident testimony of Prophecy and History. 

TTe shall now attempt to show, and, to may mind, 
satisfactorily, that the term Earth, symbolizes po- 
litical governments. Therefore we must expect to 
find principles at work and causes anointed about 
1620 to 1680, by Divine appointment, for the ac- 
complishment of the purposes foretold by the Pro- 
phet. But we have already shown that causes be- 
gan in 1620 to work out the overthrow of the then 



OF THE PROPHETS. 549 

existing forms of ecclesiastical government, that this 
was fully effected by A. D. 1800, which is within the 
180 years of the first vial period. It was within this 
period, also, about 1680, that causes were set to 
work that produced the free republican government 
of America; by which it arose, and still continues 
superior to the monarchy of the Old World, and will 
so continue forever. 

But in order to effect all this, there fell a noisome 
and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark 
of the Beast, and them which worshiped his image. 
We have already shown who this Beast and his 
image are, and shall merely state, that the " noisome 
and grievous sore," symbolizes the woful and ca- 
lamitous wars in Europe and America, from about 
1680 to 1860 ; which is 180 years, the first vial period. 
Whoever wishes to maintain bad political govern- 
ments, whether it be that of the Beast, or his Image, 
must expect to be afflicted with noisome and grievous 
sores; for it is by war and oppression, that any 
unjust political government is established and main- 
tained in the world; and such governments are an 
invasion of Divine prerogative, and will be utterly 
overthrown. 

As the characters, actions, and events of this first 
vial period, which includes 180 years, from 1680 to 
1860, are singularly important, as connected with the 
establishment and progress of political and religious 
liberty, and the fostering of free institutions, in op- 
47 



550 PREDICTIONS 

position to the tyranny and oppression of former 
periods, we shall lay before the reader a brief outline 
of the history of this period in its regular chro- 
nological order, and this is done in the author's large 
work. 

The concentrated energies of the civilized world 
seem to have been directed against the old political 
and ecclesiastical forms of government, during this 
period, and every energy has been employed to es- 
tablish those forms of government which are more 
humane, enlightened, and liberal. Therefore the 
moral improvement of mankind, and the diffusion 
of true religion in the world, may be expected to ad- 
vance more and more rapidly, as the result of the use 
of the means which have been put in operation for 
so important an end. 

The close of this period (1860) is distinguished for 
the application of the opportunities of improvement 
to the middle and lower classes ; for a philanthropic 
aim in the exertions of leading men, and for bold in- 
vention and practical philosophy in the use of 
means. 

The preceding period, from 1500 to 1680, had 
collected much learning and science, — the present, 
applied and extended it. One striking characteristic 
of this period is the combination of the means and 
wealth of many in order to accomplish what an indi- 
vidual could not do alone. Joint stock and mutual 
incorporations and associations and insurance com- 



' THE PROPHETS. 551 

parties, perform almost impossibilities, which rival 
in grandeur the works of despots ; all these have a 
direct tendency to better the condition of the great 
mass of the people. 

The means of improvement are not kept secret, 
but are freely distributed to all directly, and at la- 
vish contributions of time, labor, and money. The 
despotic governments of Europe, instigated by the 
general spirit of the age, volunteer political privileges 
and written constitutions to their subjects. Czar of 
Russia has sought to abolish serfdom; the British 
empire, at an expense of $100,000,000, liberated the 
black slaves in their colonies. Prussia and France, 
and many of the United States of North America, 
and finally even Turkey itself, have established, or 
are establishing, public schools, where every child 
shall be taught. Private associations have established 
libraries of useful knowledge, and have-afforded pub- 
lic lectures on every subject ; the people have been 
encouraged to form art unions, lyceums, associations, 
until the whole countries of England, Scotland, and 
the United States, appear to be grand universities. 
There have been established, newspapers for a penny, 
daily, — cheap pamphlet publications, and works pub- 
lished cheaply in numbers, in every department — ■ 
science, and political economy, as well as fiction. 

Governments have resorted to negotiations, to set- 
tle differences. Greece has revived; Turkey is be- 
coming humanized; Russia has improved; the arts 



552 PREDICTIONS 

of peace have generally flourished, and European 
civilization has, by means of the French aggression, 
made a lodgment in Africa. The various states of 
South America are yet unsettled, but it is something 
to have attempted self-government, and to have per- 
severed so long in the task : so it is in Central Amer- 
ica and Mexico. Asia is still, portion after portion, 
becoming subject to British conquest, and though 
we may deprecate the actual misery of the operation, 
it is but an eddy in the stream of amelioration. The 
Sandwich Islands have become a flourishing empire, 
and even passive and impenetrable China has been 
broken in upon, by the great spirit of social inter- 
course, commercial and christian activity. 

[V. 3. And the second angel poured out his vial 
upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead 
man ; and every living soul died in the sea] — This 
angel, the executioner of Divine judgment, began to 
pour out his vial upon the sea about A. D. 1860 : by 
which we understand that God anointed and con- 
secrated causes visible and invisible, to utterly destroy 
this sea; which symbolizes a corrupt Papal Corpo- 
ration, represented otherwise as the Beast, the Great 
City, and the Vine of the Earth, as we have already 
noticed. And this vial will continue to exercise its 
influence for 180 years— to A. D. 2040. 

The pouring out of vials of wrath signifies the 
bringing war on a nation. Waters signify people : 
the sea a great people ; or, as we have elswhere said ? 



OF THE PKOPHETS. 553 

an unjust church and state union government, such 
as the Southern Confederacy is. And every living 
soul, which is every man, died in the sea ; signifies 
that every one that is capable to bear arms, will be 
called upon to fight in this exterminating war ; and 
that before the war ends every living soul will die, 
except those who submit to the U. S. Government. 

There are many prophecies of vast importance 
contained in the subsequent chapters, to which the 
reader may refer in the * Voice of the Prophets." 

We are no further on in the world's history, in 
1860, than at the beginning of the pouring out of the 
Second Vial. There are yet after this, five vials to 
be poured out, which signifies that there will be five 
dreadful ivars in the world, before the battle of the 
Armageddon, or the battle of the great day of God 
Almighty. These and their causes are fully ex- 
plained in the " Voice of the Prophets." 

With this period, our quotations from history are 
brought to a close. Here we bid farewell to the past. 
The boundless future is before us, and all its charac- 
ters, actions, and events are hidden, except the few 
which are seen by the light of this Revelation ! The 
future would be entirely unknown to us, but for the 
lamp of prophetic light, which in mercy to man, has 
been hung out in the night of time, to foreshow to 
the pilgrim, that the future still teems with great and 
wonderful events, which shall all work together, un- 
der Providence, for his present and eternal good. 



554 PREDICTIONS 

[V. 4. And the third angel poured out his vial 
upon the rivers and fountains of waters, and they 
became blood] — God in his infinite wisdom will re- 
verse the order of the Divine Administration after 
the executive judgment day begins. Under the Gos- 
pel judgment, or probative judgment dispensation, 
the purpose of the Divine Administration was to re- 
move evil, little by little, from the earth ; the plan 
and order of the Divine procedure, as stated in the 
imperial Statutes from heaven, were in these words : 
" Make the fountain pure, and the stream will also 
be pure ;'"' but when the Gospel is preached to all 
nations, for a testimony unto them ; that he that be- 
ing often reproved, if he repent not, shall be suddenly 
destroyed, and that without remedy, then this change 
in the divine government will be accomplished. 

And therefore God begins to reverse his order of 
procedure under the Executive Judgment Dispen- 
sation ; begins to consume the great mass of evil by 
beginning with the sea; and then next the rivers, 
the great tributaries ; and then the fountains of wa- 
ters which were impure. And thus God breaks the 
arm of the wicked man, the man of sin, and seeks 
out his wickedness till he find none. He will execute 
his Judgment upon the earth and sea, corrupt State 
and Church powers : then upon the rivers, whatever 
forms of government may have most contributed to 
this state of things ; and then upon the fountains of 
waters ; whatever may have in any way contributed 



OF THE PROPHETS. 555 

to these great rivers of pollution or oppression ; God 
will execute his judgments on whole empires ; then 
Kingdoms and states ; then individuals, and in this 
way " destroy them which destroy the earth." These 
things will occur between A. D. 2040 and 2220, 
if events continue to occur in their regular chrono- 
logical order, as heretofore. 

[V. 5. And I heard the angel of the waters say, 
Thou art righteous, Lord, which art, and wast, and 
shait be, because thou hast judged thus] — The four 
angels, which stood upon the four corners of the earth, 
holding the four winds or elements of the earth, are 
no doubt designed to represent the four elements, so 
called by ancient philosophers, over which God 
has supreme authority and perfect control ; so that 
earth, air, fire, and water obey Him, whether in the 
days of his incarnation, or since he hath ascended far 
above all the heavens visible to mortal man. We 
have noticed the angel of the Earth ; the angel of 
the Air ; the angel which had power over Fire ; and 
now the angel of the Waters. 

The purpose of the Gospel dispensation, under the 
divine agency of the angel of the Earth, was to sub- 
due and cultivate the earth ; that of the angel of the 
Air, to dispel the gloom, from the intellectual, polit- 
ical, and moral atmosphere ; that of the angel of the 
Fife, to distribute the fire of Divine love, and diffuse 
the light of Divine truth among the nations ; and 
n.ow in these last days comes the angel of the Waters, 



556 PREDICTIONS 

that spiritual water which purifies the penitent sin- 
ner ; refreshes the weary pilgrim ; and comforts every 
child of God. This is the water which is received 
from the River of Life, through that faith which 
works by love, and purifies the heart, the soul, the 
affections, and makes a man a new creature in Christ. 
Lord, which art, and wast, and shall be, thou art 
righteous ; because thou hast judged thus in taking 
away these bitter, polluted, and poisonous waters of 
idolatry and false religion to make place for the pure 
waters of the River of Life ! 

[V. 6. For they have shed the blood of saints and 
prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink : 
for they are worthy] — Heie we ?*re told who are 
symbolized by the sea, and rivers, and fountains of 
waters. They are corrupt, cruel, and murderous 
Empires, Kingdoms, and Papal Corporations, " For 
they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets ; " 
and now in the Executive Judgment Day, Thou hast 
given them blood to drink : for they are worthy of 
such a sentence being awarded to them ; for their 
purpose, characters, and actions, which prophecy and 
history clearly and fully prove, have been such as 
deserve this sentence, and this dreadful end. 

[V. 7. And I heard another out of the altar, say- 
ing, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and right- 
eous are thy judgments] — The other angel which fhe 
Prophet heard was evidently from the Golden Altar, 
the pure Gospel altar, being the only altar at which 



OF THE PROPHET. 00/ 

airy can officiate ; for by this period all others are 
utterly overthrown. 

As the Lord counseled with Abraham, before he 
would utterly overthrow Sodom and Gomorrah, so it 
is implied in the passage before us that he counsels 
with the angel of the Altar ; that is, the angel of 
Fire, the ministers of the pure Gospel, to know if 
this sentence shall be now awarded against his incor- 
rigible enemies. And the angel answers, Even so, 
Lord God Almighty; true and righteous are thy 
judgments ; Probative, Executive, and Retributive ; 
for they are strictly according to thy word of warn- 
ing to the wicked, and thy precious Gospel promises 
to thy people. 

[V. 8. And the fourth angel poured out his vial 
upon the sun ; and power was given unto him tc 
scorch men with fire] — This event may be expected 
to commence the transactions of the Executive Judo-- 

o 

ment Day, when the harvest and vintage shall be 
gathered, and utterly consumed in America. There- 
fore the events of the fourth vial period will com- 
mence in about 360 years from this date (1860), and 
occupy 180 years— from A. D. 2220 to 2400. 

This vial is poured out upon the sun, which we 
must expect to learn is used in a metaphorical sense, 
as We have found earth, sea, and rivers, used in this 
way, on which the three former vials were poured 
during previous periods. 

The sun is used, by metonomy, for the woman 



558 PREDICTIONS 

clothed with the sun, and her children, who enjoy 
with her equal protection and privileges. America, 
we have seen, is her place. When she is spoken of 
in the feminine gender, the Holy City, the Church of 
Christ, the Light of the World, is implied. But 
when Sun is spoken of in the masculine gender, as 
in the above text, the political power of the woman 
and her posterity is symbolized. Therefore we are 
to understand that in about 300 years from this time, 
that this government will be what the sun is to our 
solar system. It will be the Light of the World. 
It will be the Ruler of the nations ; the comfort and 
joy of all people; the Morning Star of the Millen- 
nial Day. And power will be given him to consume 
all wicked men, as with fire, from the land; for the 
day cometh that shall burn them up, root and branch, 
parent and offspring. 

[V. 9. And men were scorched with great heat, 
and blasphemed the name of Grod, which hath power 
over these plagues : and they repented not to give 
him glory"] — That which was symbolized by harvest 
and vintage, rivers and fountains of waters, is now 
called Men ; so that we have to consider what is 
meant by men. 

The term men is used metaphorically, as well as 
literally, for those who are opposed to a pure Gos- 
pel government. I understand men, in this passage, 
to signify the men of great sins, which we have 
shown to be the Beast, from the fact that the numer- 



OE THE PROPHET. 559 

ical value of its letters make precisely 666. These 
men were scorched with great heat in America; for 
the executive judgment must first begin in the sanc- 
tuary, the Holy City, the place of the woman clothed 
with the sun. 

And these men of great sins, the friends of a cor- 
rupt, cruel, and unjust government, or corporation, 
blasphemed the name of God — spoke contemptuously 
of the Divine- power — the pure, peaceful, and joyful 
government of God, which hath power over these 
plagues of sin — drunkenness, reveling, and war, the 
bitter fruits of disobedience, sorrow, and death; and 
they repented not of these evil practices, to give 
God glory for bringing glad tidings of great joy to 
all people through the Gospel government ; which 
brings glory to God, and peace to earth, and good- 
will to all men who will glorify God by accepting of 
its peaceful offers, and submitting to its heavenly re- 
quirements. 

This influnnce is ahead}? - felt by all in authority, 
and is perceived to be producing its secret, but cer- 
tain changes, among all class-es of society. And it 
will burn those at the helm of political power with 
a great heat ; it will scorch them like fire, to think 
that their chances of place, honor, and gain shall be 
taken away; that the corrupt political governments 
of earth shall be utterly overthrown, to give place to 
the Millennial kingdom. And wicked men are 
scorched with great heat, and blaspheme the name 



560 PREDICTIONS 

of Grod, because all men are claiming to be free and 
equal ; that every man claims, without the aid of a 
priest, all the privileges of divine grace in the all- 
prevailing Name of Christ ; and that the Divine 
Right of kings should be questioned, is an almost 
unpardonable treason with such men. 

What ! overthrow a government which was insti- 
tuted, set up, and established by Nimrod, the mighty 
hunter of men, whom he slew or enslaved? Over- 
throw a government which has come down from the 
days of the flood? And have we not good reason to 
believe, from the tradition of the Fathers, that it ex- 
isted beyond the flood ; for an old book which has 
come down to our times, continuing the records of 
the acts of those days, declares that the earth was 
full of violence and oppression, on account of men 
forsaking the counsel of God as the only rule of ac- 
tion ? 

All unjust political governments are characterized 
by violence and oppression; man-slaying and mur- 
der ; robbery and reveling ; drunkenness and Sodo- 
my: these are partly encouraged by some, but not 
fully restrained and subdued by any political govern- 
ments. 

By unjust political governments millions have 
been legally murdered — millions of joyful mothers 
have been left lonely widows by honorable wars for 
the extension of political power. In a word, by the 
" might is right " system of rule, cities and countries 



OF THE PROPHETS. 561 

have been legally laid waste ; agriculture, and com- 
merce have been justifiably destroyed ; and the peace, 
wealth, and happiness of nations, with their millions 
of treasure, have been wantonly wasted to gratify a 
vain, cruel, and unjust ambition — which is all legal 
and right according to unjust political law ! 

But think of the system of government which is 
proposed to be established in the place of that founded 
by Nimrod ! It is every way the reverse ! Its great 
practical law is this : right is might ! How contempt- 
ible in the opinion of the followers of Nimrod is 
such a system of government! It has had a feeble 
existence about 2000 years. It has no visible power. 
It has a system of laws which is called The Gospel, 
which means, good news from God to men. Its laws 
utterly forbid violence, war, and oppression of every 
kind. It has never legally, then, murdered any man 
— never left any woman a lonely widow, or any child 
a helpless orphan ; it has never laid waste cities and 
countries, but built and peopled them ; it has never 
destroyed the agriculture, architecture, and commerce 
of nations, but has promoted and maintained them ; 
it has never impoverished a nation, but filled empires 
with wealth ; it is a mighty power, never to destroy 
men's lives or fortunes, but always exercised to save 
all who will accept of its offers of solvation. 

It does a mighty work in the earth; but it is the 
work of righteousness, which is peace ; and its ef- 
fects are quietness and assurance by the immutable 



562 PREDICTIONS. 

promise of God — by which it is impossible for a 
subject of his government to be deceived, that this 
state of things will continue forever. However men 
may cling to long-established laws and unjust insti- 
tutions of human origin, they will all be utterly dis- 
placed by the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

[V. 10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial 
upon the seat of the beast ; and his kingdom was full 
of darkness : and they gnawed their tongues for 
pain]. — We have shown that all unjust political power 
will be overthrown in America, between A. D. 2220 
and 2400 ; or, in other words, no wicked, cruel, or 
unjust laws will be allowed on the state-book, or en- 
forced by the mandates of custom. But the saints 
shall begin to possess the kingdom, and no statute 
or law shall in any wise work ill to their neighbor 
far or near ; for all the laws, statutes, and customs 
of their kingdom are written in the Book of the 
Law of the Lord, whose kingdom is an everlasting 
kingdom, and to whose dominion there shall be no 
end. 

This great Republican government will be the last 
form of secular government on earth ; it will be 
fully established, during the above period, in Amer- 
ica. This will be the morning star of the Millennial 
day. From this period, sentence will be executed 
speedily against an evil work ; and therefore the 
hearts of men will be fully set in them to do right ; 
as before stated, the order of the divine procedure, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 563 

in the rewards and punishments of men, will be re- 
versed; and though hand join in hand, the wicked 
shall not go unpunished ; but vengeance shall over- 
take him speedily for his crimes, whether done in 
public or private : for knowledge will be so increased, 
that every man's sins shall find him out, and bring 
him to the executive judgment, so that all the work- 
ers of iniquity shall be destroyed; and therefore 
none shall be left to hurt, or destroy, in all my holy 
mountain or kingdom, saith the Lord. 

This prophecy, in regard to the seat of the Beast 
will begin to be fulfilled when the fifth angel begins 
to pour out his vial upon the seat of the Beast; 
which act will require 180 years — from A. D. 2400 
to 2580. We have already demonstrated who the 
Beast is ; a government : and therefore the seat of 
the Beast is the seat of government, the capital city, 
which we have proved is Rome, or the country under 
the dominion of the Beast; or kingdom of the 
Beast. 

[And his kingdom was full of darkness] — Dark- 
ness is the emblem of ignorance, error and cruelty ; 
for the dark places of the earth, says an inspired 
writer, are full of cruelty ; and those that lived in 
such places, love darkness rather than light, because 
their deeds were evil. There is not a civilized king- 
dom on earth, so full of political darkness or ignor- 
ance, as the kingdom of the Pope, or States of the 
Church. There is no kingdom on earth, called a 



564 PREDICTIONS 

Christian Kingdom, so full of darkness or error, as 
the Papal kingdom : and there is no kingdom so full 
of darkness, or secret conspiracies, both by rulers 
and people ; or likely to be so full of darkness, polit- 
ical and spiritual cruelty, as Rome, the seat of the 
Beast, will be, by the period indicated by this pro- 
phecy. And the pouring out of this vial will be for 
the purpose of remedying these evils ; for by this 
vial, causes will be anointed, consecrated, and set to 
work, which will utterly consume these evils out of 
the kingdom of the Beast. 

The principles of divine truth, and the power of 
divine light, which had removed the political errors 
of America, and dispelled all her moral darkness, 
under the former period, indicated by the pouring 
out of the fourth vial, will now begin to produce 
their powerful results on the subjects of the Beast 
in Europe. This day of their visitation, the execu- 
tive judgment of the Beast and his kingdom, will be 
to them as a refiner's fire ; and as in America, " the 
men of great sins " shall be scorched with a great 
heat ; and if they repent not, shall be burned in un- 
quenchable fire, where there will be weeping, and 
wailing, and gnashing of teeth. 

[And they gnawed their tongues for pain] — On 
account of the wars from without, and tumults from 
within ; from the political and ecclesiastical evils 
which they will be called to endure, at the birth of 
their freedom; when every man's hand shall be 



OF THE PROPHETS. 565 

against his brother, and men shall walk amidst exe- 
cutioners of the State ; or by secret orders, be beset 
by saintly assassins ; so that fear shall be on every 
side, by day and by night. 

[V. 11. And blasphemed the God of heaven, be- 
cause of their pains, and their sores ; and repented 
not of their deeds] — They will blaspheme the God 
of Heaven in two ways. 

1. By attributing those judgments which he shall 
send upon them, to an improper cause, to chance, or 
fortune, or the devil; and not acknowledge that it is 
a just dispensation of the Divine indignation on ac- 
count of their iniquities, the cup of which is now 
full. 

2. They will blaspheme the God of Heaven, by 
praying for deliverance from these evils, to creatures, 
angels, glorified saints, or sinful Popes, bishops, or 
priests. And therefore they will not repent of their 
deeds, of praying to, or calling upon creatures for 
spiritual deliverance, as well as for temporal assist- 
ance ; the very thing for which their pains, mental 
agony, and sores — bodily afflictions — are sent upon 
them. " Call upon me, in the day of trouble, and I 
will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me; for I 
will not give my glory to creatures, nor my honor to 
graven images : for I am God, and beside me there 
is no Saviour." 

During this fifth vial period, all monarchy in 
church and State will be utterly overthrown in Eu- 
48 



566 PREDICTIONS 

rope, the seat of the Beast, and a pure Christian 
Republic, the morning star of the Millennial day, will 
sway its empire over that kingdom, which has been 
so long full of darkness : To him that overcometh, 
will I give the Morning Star ; the beginning of the 
glory of the Millennial kingdom. 

These events are all in the distant future, and it 
would be wild to conjecture as to the precise times, 
characters, or means by which these things will be 
accomplished. But it is certain that God is a God 
of order, in regard to time, as in all things else; 
and therefore, if the Divine order is still maintained, 
as in the past, in the fulfillment of these Revelations, 
we may expect these events to occur about the time 
we have indicated, from A. D. 2400 to 2580. 

[V. 12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial 
upon the great river Euphrates ; and the water there- 
of was dried up, that the way of the kings of the 
East might be prepared] — The first angel poured out 
his vial upon the earth. The second angel poured 
out his vial upon the sea. The third angel poured 
out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters. 
The fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun. 
The fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of 
the Beast. We have shown, as we think, satisfactor- 
ily, that earth, sea, rivers, sun, and seat of the Beast, 
are all used by metonomy, or metaphorically ; and 
therefore we shall expect to find, that the term, " the 
great river Euphrates," is also used in a metaphori- 



OP THE PROPHETS. 567 

cal sense. It was clearly shown, that rivers symbo- 
lized empires or kingdoms ; for like rivers they often 
overflow their bounds, and spread dismay and desola- 
tion among men, and leave destruction and death in 
their course. 

The great river Euphrates, then, is that great Mo- 
hammedan empire of Asia, in which the river is sit- 
uated, and is one of the most notable rivers of the 
Old World. This great empire is situated principal- 
ly on the Euphrates, and its tributaries. It can 
mean none other than the kingdom of the Crescent 
— which arose above the Cross, in this country, in 
the seventh century. It is the dominion of Moham- 
med ; the country of the Caliph ; the empire of the 
False Prophet. The people thereof, called the Wat- 
ers thereof, will be dried up ; will be consumed by 
causes, which the pouring out of the sixth vial, shall 
baptize, anoint, and consecrate for the purpose of 
producing this work of destruction in the empire of 
the Caliph, who is the successor of Mohammed, and 
bears she same relation to him that the Pope of 
Rome pretends to bear to St. Peter. 

This vial will occupy 180 years, from A. D. 2580 
to 2760. During this period the power of Moham- 
med and all Asiastic idolatry will be utterly over- 
thrown, and the monarchy of the Caliph must give 
place to the glorious Christian Republic. The Morn- 
ing Star of the Millennial day shall arise and shine 
in all its glory over that ancient empire, the great 



568 PREDICTIONS 

river Euphrates ; and her Crescent shall wane and 
sink forever back into the night of the past, that the 
way of the kings of the East may be prepared ; and 
that this country, so long under the dominion of the 
False Prophet, may become the possession of Christ, 
who is called the King of the East, and the Sun of 
Righteousness ; and the possession of true Christians, 
who are called the Kings to Christ, and therefore 
kings of the East, and like the sun, the light of the 
world. And it will only be by the utter overthrow 
of the Mohammedan monarchy and destructive doc- 
trine of the False Prophet, that the way can be pre- 
pared for the kings of the East — true Christians — 
to establish the pure, peaceful, and happy Grospel 
government, in this ancient empire, symbolized by 
the great river Euphrates. The Beast arose about 
the same time of the False Prophet ; they came 
up in quick succession after each other, and they go 
down in the same manner ; the Beast first, and then 
the False Prophet. 

[V. 13. And I saw three unclean spirits, like unto 
frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out 
of the mouth of the Beast, and out of the mouth of 
the false prophet] — Now Saint John, when writing 
under the influence of Divine inspiration, to the 
Church, in an epistle for their instruction in doctrine 
and duty, tells them to beware of unclean, impure, or 
unholy spirits : 1 John iv : 1-3. " Beloved, believe 
not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they 



OE THE PROPHET. 569 

are of God ; because many false Prophets are gone 
out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of 
God ; for every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus 
Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God; and this 
is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard 
that it should come ; and even now already is it in 
the world." 

In this passage, the spirit which represents An- 
tichrist, is put by metonomy for false prophets, or 
false teachers ; and the manner in which we determine 
what spirit men are of, whether of Antichrist, or of 
Jesus Christ, is by the doctrine they teach. If any 
deny, directly or indirectly, the reconciliation and re- 
demption, the justification and salvation, by the sac- 
rificial blood of Jesus Christ, who became incar- 
nete for the express purpose that his blood should be 
shed for the remission of sin, as there could be no 
remission without the shedding of his blood, and 
therefore, by the grace of God, He tasted death for 
every man : Whosoever, therefore, denies this doc- 
trine of the incarnation, merits, and mediation of 
Jesus Christ alone, as the Saviour of the world, is 
an unclean spirit, a false teacher, an Antichrist. 
Therefore ye shall know them by their fruits. 

The Prophet saw three unclean spirits, like frogs, 
come out of the mouth of the Dragon. 

1. The Dragon symbolizes Paganism. 

2. The Beast is the emblem of Romanism. 

3. The False Prophet, Mohammedanism. 



570 PREDICTIONS 

The Dragon, then, is the Pagan or Infidel power 
of the world, and he will send out three unclean 
spirits, to subvert, if it were possible, the cause and 
kingdom of Christ, and re-establish the superstitions 
of Paganism in this period. • 

I. The unclean spirit of War, by which men are 
led to destroy each other, in any and every way: 
and this was one of the characteristies of the frogs, 
which came up as a curse upon the land of Egypt, that 
they "destroyed the Egyptians." — Ps. lxxviii: 45. 

II. The unclean spirit of Wine, by which men are 
deceived and destroyed in almost countless numbers : 
this unclean spirit causes men to evince another cha- 
racteristic of frogs. 

1. It makes them noisy, like frogs, and yet, like 
frogs, it is a sound without sense; it is a reveling 
noise, the song of the drunkard, exciting to sensuality. 

2. Makes them like frogs, in regard to their loco- 
motion ; they can neither walk, run, nor stand. A 
frog goes by irregular fits and starts, and is often 
found in a ditch ; so are those under the influence 
of this unclean spirit, like frogs, frequently found in 
a ditch. 

3. It makes men, like frogs, stupid, idle, or use- 
less to society, at least half of their time ; for noth- 
ing is done satisfactorily, or profitably by those who 
are under the stupefying influence of wine. " Wine 
is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and he that is 
deceived thereby, is not wise." 



OF THE PROPHET. 571 

4. It makes men fools, and lawless, and as shame- 
lessly impudent as frogs. 

III. The unclean spirit of whoredom, whether we 
consider this term in a metaphorical or literal sense. 
For Heathenism taught men to worship gods many ; 
which idolatrous worship is spiritual whoredom. 
But Infidelity and Paganism, with the naked, shame- 
less impudence of frogs have taught and practiced 
the most naked, shameless, and impudent sensuality, 
like frogs, which are said to be the most sensual 
creatures in the world. 

For a confirmation of this character of Paganism, 
the reader is referred to that inimitable delineation 
of it, as givin by the hand of inspiration, Rom. i ; and 
but for the restraining influences of the Gospel, we 
would witness a similar state of things in all lands, 
as are still practiced in the dark lands of Paganism, 
whose practical doctrine is : " Let us eat, and drink, 
and be merry ; for to-morrow we die." 

Now, in order to know whether a spirit is like a frog 
or not, we must know the characteristics of frogs. 
Therefore we have placed before the reader a few 
leading traits of the frog's character. 

The Prophet saw three unclean spirits come out 
of the mouth of the Beast. We have shown that the 
Dragon represents the Pagan world, or Infidel and 
Pagan power of the world ; and that the Beast repre- 
sents the Papal world, or the Roman Catholic Cor- 
poration, and its image. 



572 PREDICTIONS 

"We shall now attempt to show how the three un- 
clean spirits, proceeded out of the mouth of the Beast, 
which is used, by metaphor, for his head, or Pope, 
or the Hierarchy of the Church. 

1. The unclean spirit of war has been inculcated 
by the General Councils, and Popes of this Beastly 
Corporation ; both secular and holy wars, for the ex- 
termination of what they were pleased to call Infidel- 
ity, Heresy, or Judaism ; and for the extension of 
his Corporation, which his mouth chose to call the 
the Church. All the frogs in creation would scarce- 
ly equal the number and noise of the so-called Holy 
Warriors of the Crusades, to say nothing of his de- 
structive Inquisition, secular wars, and massacre of 
St. Bartholomew. " And frogs, which destroyed 
them," in the land of Egypt, were not more disastrous 
among the people, than this unclean spirit, like frogs, 
whieh proceeded out of the mouth by the authority 
of this Beast, has been among mankind, and will be 
before the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 

2. The unclean spirit of wine, whether it be ap- 
plied in a metaphorical sense to the doctrine of the 
Beast, or literally, to the abuse of it by those who 
claim to belong to this Papal Corporation, which is 
called the Church, to the rejection of all others, and 
with all the impudence of one, at least, spiritually 
drunken. Just think of the drunken blasphemies 
which these sottish children of the so-called Church 
have, in their froggish, noisy revels, uttered against 



OF THE PROPHETS. 573 

God, Religion, and Virtue ! Listen to their drunken 
doctrines of priestly pardon, purifying purgatory, 
plenary indulgences, and works of saintly superero- 
gation ! Who but one spiritually intoxicated would 
dare to teach or believe such doctrines? Such are 
certainly drunken leaders of the drunken, and they 
shall both fall into the ditch. 

3. The unclean spirit of whoredom, or fornication, 
whether we take it in a literal or figurative sense, has 
been unparalleled in the case of some of the Papal 
hierarchy, both in regard to the practice of idolatry, 
which they have taught and inculcated, which in 
Scripture is called "going a whoring after other 
God's " or objects of worship ! 

And in a literal sense, as Luther expresses it, 
" They have sworn not to have wives of their own, 
that they may take other men's wives ; " and in this 
way this Beastly Corporation has become the mother 
of Harlots, as necessarily and as certainly as a law- 
ful mother brings forth legitimate children. The 
quotations which are already before the reader on 
this subject, in previous chapters, are abundant to 
satisfy every man in his sober senses, that these three 
unclean spirits, like frogs, have come out of the 
mouth of the Beast. 

St. John saw these three unclean spirits, like 

frogs, come out of the mouth of the False Prophet. 

A horrible trinity, the very opposite of the spirit of 

peace, purity, and joyful sobriety, proceeding from 

49 



574 PREDICTIONS. 

the mouth of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Spirit. 

1. The unclean spirit of war came out of the 
mouth of the False Prophet, the founder of the em- 
pire of the Caliphs, just as readily as it did from the 
mouth of the Beast or Dragon; for Mohammed es- 
tablished his false doctrines, his system of religion, 
by the sword, and the implements of war, as we have 
shown in the former part of this work. 

2. The unclean spirit of wine, if we take it in a 
metaphorical sense, has been the means of intoxicat- 
ing the millioDS who have drank the wine, the doc- 
trine of this False Prophet. As to the extent of the 
evils produced by the False Prophet, it has been 
commensurate with his vast dominions, which have 
been almost equal to any empire on earth ; and 
is called, by way of pre-eminence, " The Great River 
Euphrates." 

3. The unclean spirit of whoredom, which pro- 
ceeded out of the mouth of the False Prophet, is one 
of the most prominent doctrines inculcated in the 
Koran ; the promise was made to every warrior, who 
fought and fell in battle, that thereby he merits Par- 
adise, and should enjoy a heaven of sensuality; or, 
if he was not slain, should enjoy an equal portion of 
the " booty and beauty," which should fall into the 
hands of the victors. 

[V. 14. For they are the spirits of devils, work- 
ing miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the 



OF THE PROPHETS. 575 

earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the 
battle of that great day of God Almighty] — The 
three unclean spirits which come out of the mouth 
of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet, 
are here declared to be the spirits of devils ; which 
are evidently used by metonomy for doctrines ; and 
are therefore three unclean, impure, and unholy doc- 
trines of devils : of which the spirit elsewhere ex- 
pressly speaketh, that in the last times, some shall 
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits 
and doctrines of devils ; and among which, one is 
the forbidding to marry, and the encouraging man- 
kind to live in promiscuous and froggish sensuality. 
But the doctrine of war is as repugnant to the Gos- 
pel of peace, as the doctrine of whoredom; and 
therefore it is also a doctrine of the devil. And if 
it be shown that wine, which is a generic term for 
whatever intoxicates, is forbidden and denounced by 
the Word of God, then it is also a doctrine of the 
devil ; but the Inspired Writings abound in the most 
positive prohibitions and denunciations against the 
practice and doctrine; teaching us that we should 
not taste the unclean thing, for the purpose of intox- 
ication : and that no impenitent drunkard shall in- 
herit the kingdom of God. Therefore, cursed is he 
that putteth the bottle to his neighbor's mouth. 

[Working wonders] — 0, the wonders of sorrow, 
tribulation and ruin, which have been wrought by 
these three unclean spirits, war, wine, whoredom! 



576 PEEDICTIONS 

War has promised prosperity ; but like its author, 
Satan, it has always produced ruin ! Wine has pro- 
mised pleasure ; but it has proved to be a spirit from 
Satan ; and has stung like a scorpion, or bitten like 
a serpent ! Whoredom has promised a paradise of 
happiness ; but at the last her chambers were found 
to be on the road to death, and her paths led down 
to hell ! 

[Which go forth unto the kings of the earth] — 
The kings of the Earth, are set, by antithesis, with 
the kings of the East, and signify the very opposite. 
While the one signifies the friends of Christ ; the 
other signifies the friends of Antichrist. The former 
are striving by the power of moral suasion, and the 
Holy Spirit, to establish the peaceful, pure, and heav- 
euly system of Gospel government in the world, and 
are therefore going forth into all the world to preach 
the Gospel to every creature. IVhile the latter, in- 
toxicated with the three unclean spirits, War, Wine, 
and Whoredom, are striving by brute force to main- 
tain that corrupt, cruel, and unjust political govern- 
ment which has existed, in some form or other, ever 
since the days of Nimrod. The indications of pro- 
phecy are clear, that by A. D. 2760, that there will 
be a union of Paganism, Romanism, and Mohamme- 
danism, to crush Christianity out of existence; and 
these three unclean spirits are going, and will go to 
the whole world, to gather them to the battle of 
that great executive judgment day of God Almighty, 



OF THE PROPHETS. 577 

[V. 15. Behold, I come as a tliief. Blessed is he 
that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk 
naked, and they see. his shame] — The signs of the 
times will clearly indicate these important events, 
and the wise shall understand ; but, behold, give good 
heed, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged 
with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and pleasures of 
this life, and that executive judgment day overtake 
you unawares ; for as a snare shall it come upon all 
them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 
" Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may 
be accounted worthy to escape all these things, that 
shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of 
Man." — Luke xxi. 

[Behold, I come as a thief] — as a thief does not 
let you know the precise day, or year in which he is 
going to come ; so the Son of Man, who has taken 
his journey into a far country, has let us know, that 
just as certainly as there are thieves in the world, 
and that they come, when men are not aware of it : 
so certainly will he come back again to the world in 
like manner. 

[Blessed is he that watcheth] — That keepeth him- 
self in the love of God by keeping the commands of 
God ; and watches over the household of faith, to 
warn the unruly, to comfort the feebleminded, to sup- 
port the weak. u Blessed is that servant whom 
when his Lord cometh, he shall find so doing." 

[And keepeth his garments]- -Stands ready, and 



578 PREDICTIONS 

equipped for every emergency ; armed cap-a-pie, 
with weapon and vestment from the heavenly armory 
and wardrobe, as no others will be of any avail when 
the Bridegroom shall come. 

[Lest he walk naked] — Not covered, having no 
clothes on, which the Bridegroom will recognize, as 
from the heavenly wardrobe ; and therefore not be- 
coming a guest of the marriage feast ! Or naked, in 
the sense of being unarmed, exposed, having no 
means of defense, which the Captain of our salvation 
will own as coming from the heavenly armory, and 
suitable to encounter the combined foes of the King 
of kings, and end the conflict of ages, on the execu- 
tive judgment day of God Almighty. 

[And they see his shame] — His want of confidence 
in the promises of the Son of Man, that he would 
certainly return, though he tarried long. And his 
want of obedience to the heavenly master who com- 
manded all to watch and be ready for his return. 
And his condemnation shall be that of the Slothful 
servant and the Foolish virgins. It is a personal 
matter : his portion shall be appointed where there 
is darkness, and weeping, and wailing forever. And 
this is not because of any unchangeable decree ; but 
because he willfully neglected timely warning and the 
offer of a full, free, and present salvation; and there- 
fore that day shall find all such neglecters naked 
completely unready. 

But the infinite goodness of God Almighty gives 



OF THE PROPHETS. 579 

us this beautifully abrupt warning, breaking the con- 
nection of an important narration to put every man 
upon his guard, and that the timely warning may 
make the more solemn impression on every mind. 

[V. 16. And he gathered them together into a place 
called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon] — it ap- 
pears, from this passage, that as God judicially hard- 
ened the heart of Pharaoh, and permitted him to 
pursue his people into the midst of the Red sea ; so 
he will gather these enemies of his into a place, 
which in the Hebrew is called Armageddon : that is, 
" The destruction of their army," which Ltake to be 
the true sense of the word in the Hebrew tongue. 
And this interpretation makes the text, and context, 
entirely consistent; and, therefore, must be the true 
and absolute sense of the word, in the present con- 
nection. 

There is, also, in my opinion, a mystical sense 
contained in the passage ; there is a reference to the 
ancient valley of Megiddo, where there were two 
great slaughters of two armies, one of the Israelites, 
his pretended friends ; and the other of the Canaan- 
ites, his avowed enemies. So when God Almighty 
shall gather the Pagan, Mohammedan, and Roman 
Catholic, and other formal Christian powers of the 
earth together in one place, for the destruction of 
their army, a part of the army, like the idolatrous 
Israelites, will be his pretended or avowed friends, of 
whom he will say, I never knew you ; while the oth- 



580 PREDICTIONS 

er, like the idolatrous Canaanites, will be his avowed 
enemies. And our present war is of this very cha- 
racter, it is between the friends and enemies of Christ, 
and in this respect is a symbol of the battles of that 
great day of God Almighty. 

But where this place will be, I do not now pretend 
to say ; yet, as to when, I am sure the event is in 
the future. Some, however, say it will be at Mt. 
Megiddon, in the land of Israel. Some have said it 
was the great battles fought in Europe by Napoleon. 
Some say it was the more recent battles of France 
and Austria. And it is believed by others that it 
will be soon in the United States of America. I am 
of opinion it will be in Eastern Europe, or Western 
Asia, about A. D. 2760. 

[V. 17. And the seventh angel poured out his 
vial into the air ; and there came a great voice out 
of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, 
It is done] — This vial will begin to be poured out in 
about 840 years from now, and will, like the other 
vials, occupy about 180 years, the period from A. D. 
2760 to 2940. This, I judge, will be the time when 
this important event will transpire ; and what de- 
termines my judgment, is the fulfillment of the past 
prophecies of this book, which we have proved to 
agree exactly with this chronological measure — God 
is the God of order. 

But as to the place where, or that upon which the 
vial is poured, is another question ; and therefore, 



OF THE PROPHET. 581 

we shall now proceed to consider what is meant by 
the Air, into, or more properly upon which, the 
seventh vial is to be poured. I think it has been 
satisfactorily shown, that all things upon which the 
former vials were poured, were used in a metaphori- 
cal sense. 

The earth symbolized political governments. The 
sea ecclesiastical governments. The rivers and 
fountains of water, empires, kingdoms and states. 
The sun, the American government. The seat of 
the Beast, Rome, and Roman Catholic countries. 
The great river Euphrates, the Mohammedan em- 
pire. And now, we must expect to find that air, in 
this place, has an emblematic meaning, and therefore, 
like all true prophecy, be consistent with itself, and 
those predictions with which it is intimately con- 
nected. 

The Air, in this passage, signifies what Jeremiah 
xlix : 36, means by the four winds. The four winds 
comprise the whole air or atmosphere ; and he tells 
us what he means by the four winds or air ; he 
means all nations, all people, all mankind. And St. 
Paul uses a term of similar import, Eph. ii : 2, 
" Wherein in time past ye walked according to the 
course of this w r orld, according to the Prince of the 
Poiver of the Air. The Prince or spirit that now 
worketh (or ruleth) in the children of disobedience ; 
among whom also we all had our conversation in 
times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the de- 



582 PREDICTIONS 

sires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by na- 
ture the children of wrath, even as others." Here 
I understand the Apostle to mean, by walking ac- 
cording to the course of this world, the laws, rules, 
or government of this world ; and to walk according 
to the Prince of the Power of the Air, is to obey 
the laws, rules of action, of corrupt, cruel, and un- 
just political governments of the world, through 
which Satan, the great Dragon, the Prince of the 
political governments of the world, works in the 
hearts of the children of disobedience and rebellion, 
and accomplishes his purposes in opposition to the 
cause and kingdom of Christ in the world. At the 
close of the period of pouring out of this vial, will 
be fulfilled the declaration of Christ, John xii : 81 : 
" Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the 
Prince of this world be cast out." The Prince of 
this world and the Prince of the Power of the Air, 
symbolize Satan, the Prince of this world, or the 
Prince of the Power of the Air, who, through the 
medium of political governments, has sent out his 
three unclean spirits, War, Wine and Whoredom, 
and their concomitants, by which he has caused men 
to enact cruel laws ; to teach false doctrines and to 
lead reveling lives ; and hereby engendered universal 
disregard to the Divine government, and thus entit- 
ling men to the appellation of Children of Disobedi- 
ence ; and in this manner, and by these means has 
the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Prince of 



OF THE PROPHETS. 583 

this world, maintained his dominions over man- 
kind. 

The close of this period, 2880, will bring the 
morning .light of the Millennial Day. This is the 
year, 2880, in which Daniel's 2300 days end. This 
is precisely the year, also, in which ends the woman's 
second sojourn in the wilderness. And this will be 
the year in which all unjust political governments 
on earth will be overthrown. Under the pouring out 
of the Seventh Yial will be ultimately fulfilled the 
prediction of the prophet Joel, as quoted by St. 
Peter, on the Day of Pentecost. 

" But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up 
his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and 
all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto 
you, and hearken to my words : For these are not 
drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third 
hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken 
by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in 
the last days (saith God), I will pour out of my 
Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your 
daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall 
see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams : 
And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will 
pour out, in those days, of my Spirit, and they shall 
prophesy: And I will show wonders in heaven 
above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood and 
fire, and vapor of smoke : The sun shall be turned 
into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that 



584 PREDICTIONS 

great and notable day of the Lord come: And it 
shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on 
the name of the Lord, shall be saved." — Acts ii : 
14-21. 

In this period the wrath of God will be poured 
out, or in other words, his disapprobation will be 
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness of con- 
duct, and all unrighteousness of government in the 
whole world. The Sun and Moon, all forms of 
government will be overthrown ; the blessings of a 
second Pentecost be poured out on all the world ; 
and then begins the dawn of the long-looked for 
period, when shall be seen the sign of the Son of 
Man in Heaven ; this event is the very mystery of 
God which should be revealed in the days when the 
Seventh Trumpet shall sound. Rev. xi : 15, "And 
the seventh angel sounded ; and there were great 
voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this 
world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of 
his Christ ; and he shall reign forever and ever." 

[And there will be thunders] — Supernatural 
voices, or superhuman voices, proclaiming the sec- 
ond advent, as there were angelic voices proclaiming 
his first advent. And there will be lightnings. 
Unusual appearances, and superhuman indications 
will appear in the heavens, and angels begin once 
more to hover over our long-cursed world, and sud- 
denly as lightning there will be a multitude of the 
heavenly host praising God, and saying, glory to 



OE THE PROPHET. 585 

God in the highest, and on the earth everlasting 
peace, and eternal good-will to men. 

[And there will be a great earthquake] — Which, I 
suppose, is to be understood in a metaphorical sense, 
and indicates the great moral, social and political 
changes, which will then begin to take place, and 
revolutionize the world, such as was not since men 
were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and 
so great. 

The generation which is then in existence in the 
world when these events begin to transpire, shall not 
pass away, till all these things be fulfilled. And 
two shall be in the field ; one shall be taken to reign 
with Christ, and the other condemned as quick as 
lightning, and left as ashes under the feet of the 
righteous, in the day that I shall do this, saith the 
Lord of hosts. — Malachi iv. 

Then shall be seen the sign of the Son of Man in 
the heavens, 120 years, in my opinion before this 
event finally occurs ; so that the world will be fully 
warned, as in the days of Noah. This Sign of the 
Son of Man, in my judgment, will be a remarkably 
luminous appearance, seen first in the solemn depths 
of the heavens, in the quiet hours of night, when 
men are watching flocks of stars, instead of sheep. 
Then the far-off Light of the New Jerusalem shall 
first fall upon mortal vision, and years shall pass 
before the light of its glory shall fall upon the un- 
aided eye of the humble child of God. But as it 



586 PREDICTIONS 

nears the earth, then the cry shall go up from the 
joyful children of God : ;i Behold the bridegroom 
cometh, go ye out to meet him.'" — Math, xxiv : 
30-35. 

The precise day, month or year, however, of the 
second advent is not revealed, and more than this, 
it never will be revealed, because the immutable jus- 
tice of God requires that it should be concealed. 
But that generation (and 120 years was allotted man 
for a generation), which shall live from A. D. 2880 
to 3000, shall not see death, and shall witness all 
these things, and see the Son of Man coming in 
great glory to the Executive Judgment Day. if pro- 
phecy is fulfilled in the same chronological order in 
the future. 

[And there came a great voice out of the Temple 
of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done] — 
The Gospel has been preached to all nations for a 
testimony to them. The time for the cleansing of 
the Sanctuary from all errors in doctrine, corrup- 
tions in practice, and unrighteousness in govern- 
ment has come : the time when the second sojourn 
of the woman in the wilderness, was to end: the 
time when all political governments should be over- 
thrown ; and the time that the saints should arise 
and possess the kingdom under the whole heaven. 
Here then the present Gospel dispensation ends, and 
the new dispensation will begin, under the personal 
reign of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth with his people. 



OF THE PROPHETS. 587 

And now, it is done, as it was said in Rev. x : 7, 
that in the days of the seventh trumpet, the mystery 
of Grod should be finished ; so here we find it com- 
pleted — it is done ! Once there were Pagans, and 
Romans, and Mohammedans, and nominal Christians; 
and they had cities, governments — political and ec- 
clesiastical ; but now, they are all extinct ; and 
right has triumphed gloriously over wrong. 

V. 18. And there were voices, and thunders, 
and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, 
such as was not since men were upon the earth, 
so mighty an earthquake, and so great] — The great 
events here described, Avill occur at the end of the 
present dispensation, and at the Executive Judgment 
Day — about A. D. 3000. And the events predicted 
here, are the same as those foretold by the Prophet 
Daniel, chap, xii : 1, 2. " And at that time shall 
Michael stand up, the great Prince, which standeth 
for the children of thy people ; and there shall be a 
time of trouble, such as never was since there was 
a nation, even to that same time ; and at that time, 
thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall 
be found written in the book. And many of them 
that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, 
some to everlasting life, and some to shame and 
everlasting contempt." And these same events were 
also predicted by our Lord ! 

" Immediately after the tribulation of those days 
shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not 



588 PREDICTIONS. 

give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, 
and the powers of heaven shall be shaken : 

" And then shall appear the sign of the Son of 
man in heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the 
earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man com- 
ing in the clouds of heaven with power and great 
glory. 

" And he shall send his angels with a great sound 
of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect 
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the 
other." 

But, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be 
at the second advent, or the return of Jesus Christ 
to our world. As this seventh vial period ends from 
A. D. 2880, it will be 120 years from 2880, before 
the 7000 years of the world, or the 3000 years of 
the Christian era, will end! And during this 120 
years, as in the days of Noah, mankind will be 
warned of the impending doom, by voices of good 
men from earth, as Noah warned the antediluvians 
120 years before the flood came and took them all 
away. 

Now when Christ was here upon earth, no man 
knew of the day when he would return to earth, af- 
ter he ascended to the throne of the Father ; not 
even the angels, but the Father only ; and that day 
will be only revealed by his advent. 

[V. 19. And the great city was divided into throe 
parts, and the cities of the nations fell ; and great 



OF THE PROPHETS. 589 

Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give 
unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his 
wrath] — By the Great City I understand the com- 
bined and corporated enemies of the people and Gos- 
pel of Jesus Christ; for the Great City is repre- 
sented under this character, and set by contrast with 
the Holy City, the Church of God. The Great City, 
or political and Papal Corporations of the world 
will be divided into three parts, by the end of the 
seventh vial period; one part Pagans, one Roman 
Catholics, and the other Mohammedans. True Chris- 
tians will have rejected, by this time, all unjust poli- 
tical governments as a nuisance, and a reproach to 
the Christian name and character; and in this way, 
the cities, or political corporations, of the Christian 
nations will fall, and Christians will be no longer 
compelled to spend their money for that which is not 
bread, and their labor for that which satisfieth not 
body or mind ; as is true of all such political govern- 
ments. 

And this great political Babylon, which, like an- 
cient Babylon, has so long held the people of God 
in corrupt, cruel, and unjust bondage to a set of po- 
litical taskmasters, who have been of no service to 
the people of God, or to the advancement of his 
Kingdom in the world, but on the contrary have kept 
his people in bondage, and the woman in the wilder- 
ness 2520 years, from the days of the sounding the 
first trumpet, to the close of the seventh vial period. 
50 



590 PREDICTIONS 

But at the end of this period, the power, and honor, 
and dominion of this great political and ecclesiasti- 
cal Babylon shall be taken away ; for at this time 
shall great Babylon come up in remembrance before 
God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the 
fierceness of his wrath ; " which is a manifest token 
of the righteous (executive) judgment of God, to re- 
compense tribulation to those that trouble you. And 
to you who are troubled, rest with us, in the promise, 
that when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 
heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire (like 
lightnings), taking vengeance on them that know not 
God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." — Ye shall be saved, and sit down with him 
in his heavenly kingdom. 

[V. 20. And every island fled away, and the 
mountains were not found] — I suppose islands and 
mountains are to be understood in a metaphorical 
sense, and are used by metonomy for states, king- 
doms, and empires, small and great, which have been 
united against Christ and his Kingdom. But at the 
coming of Jesus Christ, these Papal Corporations 
and unjust political kingdoms will be completely an- 
nihilated, and as utterly overthrown as if the islands 
were sunk, or the mountains cast into the depths of 
the sea. The states and kingdoms of the world shall 
no more support an idolatrous Church, and the " man 
of sin ;" shall no more oppress the people of God. 

[Y. 21. And there fell upon men a great hail out 



OF THE PROPHETS. 591 

of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent : 
and men blasphemed God because of the plague of 
the hail ; for the plague thereof was exceeding great] 
— By men, I understand the Prophet to represent 
the enemies of God and his moral government ; the 
very characters which are said to know not God, and 
obey not the Gospel, which is the only system of 
laws designed for the moral government of mankind, 
in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in this world. 

But as the Gospel recognizes man as a moral agent, 
and capable of moral government alone without 
any political restraints ; therefore, all unjust human 
enactments, and those men who labor to maintain 
them, will be gathered out of his kingdom, so that 
there shall be nothing left to hurt or destroy, in all 
my holy mountain, saith the Lord. 

Hail, we have noticed, signifies destructive war, 
and coming from heaven, indicates that it will come 
directly from God, upon his foes, when he shall be 
revealed from heaven, to take vengeance on them 
that know him not, and obey not his Gospel ; and 
every stone about the weight of a talent, equal to 
about one hundred and twenty pounds, signifies the 
suddenness and certainty of the destruction. 

[And men blasphemed God because of the plague 
of the hail] — The characters of these men are de- 
termined by their conduct, so that by their fruits 
they are known; and it proves that incorrigibly 
wicked men blasphemed God in life, in death, and 



592 PREDICTIONS 

will do the same in the day of judgment ; and there- 
fore are unfit for his heavenly kingdom, and the 
company of holy angels ; and utterly unfit for the 
companionship of their happy and glorified fellow 
mortals, who by faith and obedience, and through 
great tribulation, entered the kingdom of God. 

This plague will be exceeding great, and it will be 
impossible for men to escape its destructive influence. 
All the attempts of sinners to escape the just judg- 
ments of God, will be fruitless, vain, and impossible. 

This chapter contains the predictions of the Seven 
Vials, the pouring out which implies both action and 
time ; and the period of time which is required for 
these Seven Angels to pour out the seven vials, is 180 
years to each angel; and the whole length of time 
is 1260 years. The first angel began to pour out his 
vial in A. D. 1680 ; and the seventh angel ceases to 
pour out his vial, or rather completes the pouring 
out of his vial, in A. D. 2940. 

I am of opinion that this prophecy has its incipient 
fulfillment in the present Rebellion in the United 
States of America. The government, the great city, 
was divided into three parts at the beginning of the 
rebellion — nine states in rebellion — six, neutral, 
and the remainder, loyal ; and great Babylon, Sla- 
very, came up in remembrance before God, and re- 
ceived its righteous doom. And the Islands or 
States fled away from the help of the rebellion, and 
the Mountains, the kingdoms of Europe, were not 



OP THE PROPHETS. 593 

found to come to the help of the rebellion, and there 
fell upon the men in rebellion a great hail of lead and 
iron, every hail-stone about the weight of a talent or 
120 pounds. And this has been the average weight 
of the hail-stones or cannon balls used in the present 
war. And yet these rebels blaspheme God by their 
conduct and conversation about this government, 
which he has ordained to give them this great hail 
on account of their rebellion against his own or- 
dained government; and on account of their incorri- 
gible conduct, God will accomplish upon the Southern 
Confederacy the prediction of the prophet Zephania. 

" Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and 
their houses a desolation : they shall also build houses, 
but not inhabit them ; and they shall plant vineyards, 
but not drink the wine thereof. 

The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, 
and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the 
Lord : the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. 

That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble 
and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day 
of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick 
darkness. 

A day of the trumpet and alarm against the 
fenced cities, and against the high towers. 

And I will bring distress upon men, that they 
shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned 
against the Lord : and their blood shall be poureu 
out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. 



594 PREDICTIONS OF THE PROPHETS. 

Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able 
to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath ; but 
the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his 
jealousy : for he shall make even a speedy riddance 
of all them that dwell in the land." 

This is one of the most gloomy prophetic pictures 
drawn by the pen of divine inspiration, in regard to 
the punishment of a rebellious nation, and is now be- 
ing literally fulfilled in our own land. However, 
when we, as a Nation, shall have learned obedience 
by the things we have suffered, on account of our 
national sins against God and humanity, then a bet- 
ter state of things will ensue, as certainly as day 
succeeds night ; as cheerfully as Spring follows Win- 
ter; as beautifully as Summer comes after Spring, to 
hear the patient reapers shout the joyful harvest 
home. 




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